Point of No Return
by coldqueen
Summary: Complete. The XMen disappeared three years ago. Despite all measures taken, they couldn't be found. Now, they're returning, and they're not happy. Also, shadowy figures, love on the side, and a twistyturvy ending. ROMY, KIOTR
1. If I Should Lose You

**Prologue: If I Should Lose You

* * *

**

_It was quiet in the town, dawn just breaking and only life just returning to the streets after a cold winter night. Snow was still drifting down from the trees as they shivered in the wind. In their homes, normal people were just waking up, slowly opening their eyes and yawning. These people had yet to realize that today would become known as the Day of Cleansing. The day that thirteen of the infamous X-Men would disappear...no clues, no warning, and no trace._

_Up a long winding road, that passed numerous large houses full of servants and nouveau riche, Xavier's School for the Gifted was located. In a neighborhood fast becoming known for its open mutant occupancy, the rich of the rich flocked, so that they could tell their golfing buddies that they lived next to famous mutants. No longer hated, for the most part, mutants. After saving the world from Apocalypse a scant three months ago, the President had openly condoned the X-Men and all their efforts. European and Asian countries were quick to follow._

_Inside said school, it was not quiet, it was not peaceful, and it was most certainly not normal. School was starting today and life was hectic. The new mutants had arrived back only last week, so they were still settling in (in fact, several hadn't even unpacked yet). Amara Aquilla was currently in the front seat of her best friend and roommate Tabitha's car, studiously ignoring the three boys in the back seat who had decided that today was "Torture Amara" day. Bobby Drake, Roberto Da Costa, and Ray Crisp were teenage mutants, more than that, they were teenage boys, and it just happened that Amara was one of the cutest girls at the institute, so while they sat in the garage and waited for Tabby to get down there, they did their amateur best to flirt with her._

_In another part of the garage, which, by the way, was monster sized to allow for five vehicles to park in there, with Scott Summers and Jean Grey both parking outside, stood two of the Institute's first students. Speaking of those two, they were the only members of the X-Men not returning to school, or high school at least. The year prior the two had graduated, and proceeded to college. They were back today out of nostalgia before they headed into New York City, where they were both attending NYU. The couple stood near the door, Scott continually yelling for people to hurry up before they were late. It was almost just like it used to be, with him being overbearing and grumpy as usual, and Jean looking perfect and serene. At six a.m. most of the students could throttle them for looking so fresh._

_Speaking of throttling, Rogue was giving out her patent death glare as she and Kitty entered the garage. It wasn't directed at anybody in particular, but more at the cell phone in her hand and the man on the other end. Even without her yelling at him, everyone knew who it was, though some didn't approve._

_"What do ya mean, Remy? The only poker worth playin' is Texas Hold 'Em!"_

_Scott glowered at the young Goth, having never approved of the friendship between her and the Acolyte, Gambit. The professor had encouraged it, and despite Remy still living in New Orleans, Rogue and he had developed a somewhat odd friendship._

_"You crazy, chère...the only poker wort' playin' is Seven Card Stud."_

_"Ya only say that cause ya think ya're a stud."_

_"What can Remy say? De ladies, dey love me. Maybe next time Remy up dat way, you and he play...some strip poker."_

_Rogue scoffed. "Ah ain't takin' nothin' off in front of ya...Ah prefer men with class."_

_"Like me?" Warren Worthington asked as he stepped into the garage, pausing for a moment as Katherine "Kitty" Pryde phased through him at a run. He grinned at Rogue, winking flirtatiously before joining Scott and Jean near the wall. Warren had made it very clear when he'd moved into the institute last month that he'd enjoy dating Rogue. She'd made it clear that the answer was "Hell no."_

_Through the cell phone Remy had heard what Warren said, and well aware of Warren's feelings for Rogue, replied with ease," Chère, I t'ought you said you wanted a man with class...not a man who's an ass."_

_Rogue laughed. "Ah ain't dealin' with either of ya. Ah gotta go to school." Rogue flipped the phone shut and slid into the driver's seat of a black Lexus before Kitty could._

_"Oh, come on! I, like, wanna drive!" Kitty yelled as she returned to the garage, having retrieved her laptop, the one piece of technology she absolutely couldn't go through the day without._

_"No," Rogue replied as she adjusted the mirrors and her seat._

_"Why not?"_

_"Cause Ah don' want to dah..."_

_"I totally wouldn't-"_

_**BAMF!**_

_Kurt teleported into the back seat, half-dressed and still blue. "Are ve going or vhat!"_

_Kitty huffed and phased into the passenger seat, deliberately phasing her elbow through Rogue so that she'd get a small shock. We get our satisfaction where we can._

_Outside the cars, the three "Too Cool for School" adults watched as inside the cars people squabbled and argued._

_"Why aren't they gone yet?" Warren asked._

_"Tabitha isn't down yet, and they prefer to arrive en masse," Scott explained looking at his watch._

_"Oh...what is it with girls and their cliques?" Warren asked._

_Jean scowled. "It's not a clique thing, it's a safety thing. We're mainstream now, and publicly people are nice to us, but privately...we're still mutants."_

_Warren frowned. "Have there been problems with people around town?"_

_Jean and Scott sighed. "A few, but it's tapered off. It's still high school though, and it's always a lot rougher there than anywhere."_

_"True," Scott said, nodding in relief as he finally heard Tabitha's feet on the stairs. "Now that they're gone, it's probably about time we got Rahne and Jamie up. Middle school starts in an hour."_

_"And then the house will be empty," Jean said glumly, still not happy that the Professor, Storm, Beast, and Wolverine were all out of the house at the same time. It never really felt safe without one of them there. Except for Logan, the adults were all at Muir Island, consulting with a Dr. Moira McTaggert on some sort of new mutant threat. Jean had picked up a passing thought but all she'd been able to hold onto was something that sounded like "shard". The very fact that she hadn't been able to clearly remember what was said was a tribute to how closely the three adults had been holding their thoughts. It took a lot of effort to keep thoughts from the second most powerful telepath in the world. Logan hadn't even tried. He was in Canada working for S.H.I.E.L.D. doing something Jean would rather not think about._

_Tabitha burst through the doorway, careening into Warren and Scott where they stood but not pausing, only shouting out an apology as she hurried to the jeep she'd "requisitioned" from Lance. How Kitty had felt about Tabitha doing anything with her own ex-boyfriend Lance Alvers was anybody's guess, for Kitty wasn't talking, except maybe to Rogue._

_Finally, the garage doors started to open and cars were started. Even as Scott turned to go wake up the remaining two members of the X-Men, time slowed..._

_Until it stopped. Nothing and no one moved, from the fly in mid-flight to a muffin, to Rogue reaching over to smack Kurt on the head. Tabitha was frozen getting into the vehicle, just as the three boys were frozen leaning forward to hit on Amara._

_For an eternity it seemed like nothing was going to happen...then with a flash of bright blue light that, had anyone been up and about, would have been seen for miles, they all disappeared. Nothing was touched and nothing was taken but the people, and it all seemed as if one day, they all just disappeared._

_Or..._

_That's what they wanted you to think._

"Personally, I still believe that the government sent secret agents in to take all the X-Men out and covered it up...but that's just me. I know this man who swears that last week he saw the Rogue walking around downtown Bayville, course he hasn't got any proof," the tour guide said as the film finished and the lights came up. He'd been working this gig for three months, and other than the few mutant nutters who came around, it was money in his pocket. Smiling, he led the final group out of the theatre and through the Mutant Museum. "It's been three years since they disappeared and no one has yet been able to tell anyone exactly what happened."

A hand shot up near the back of the crowd. "Why is it so important that those thirteen disappeared? I mean, I've never really heard of them except that they supposedly stopped that big mutant dude that was trying to take over the world."

The tour guide, a tall blonde man on the bad side of forty, smiled politely. "These thirteen were important because there was no trace. With their numerous mutant abilities, had there been a battle there would have been evidence or damage. However, it was almost like they'd all simply got up and left, leaving behind money, personal mementos, and priceless heirlooms." The tour guide gestured to the glass case holding personal items of the X-Men, and continued through the halls. "I'll now be taking you through the underground matrix of the mansion, the very rooms where the X-Men trained, taught, and cared for. If everyone would step into the elevator?" The tour guide, whose name is Mark, by the way, and all fifteen of the tourists entered the large elevator and descended into the lower levels.

As they walked through the halls, Mark answered several questions and explained various things about the compound. All was going well, until they entered the Danger Room control tower. Suddenly, red lights flashed and the lights began to dim. Below them, a fight was breaking out. Excited, afraid, and slightly jumpy, the tourists looked through the windows and out onto the fight.

On one side, three figures stood, wearing various costumes, ranging from Magneto to Apocalypse to Juggernaut. On the other side, stood the X Men. They ran at each other, fighting and using their "powers" to hurt each other. Storm rose into the air and suddenly fog started to drift into the room. There was a blue man climbing on the wall, and one man shooting lasers from his eyes. Several girls had engaged Juggernaut in hand to hand combat, but didn't display any powers.

Finally, the "battle" was over and Mark started to clap. "This is the Danger Room, where the X-Men practiced for hundreds of hours, honing their gifts and their minds. How about a round of applause for our actors? Weren't they wonderful?"

Below them, the "X-Men" and "Enemies" bowed before leaving the room. Upstairs, the group was finally realizing that it had been a dramatization and were clapping. The tour was over, though, and soon Mark had directed them up and out of the mansion, locking the doors behind them.

He sighed and moved to the elevator, heading to join the Danger Room actors for a drink. It was a Saturday and today was their biggest day, with tour groups every fifteen minutes and at least two thousand people heading through. Mark was so exhausted, that he failed to notice the duet of eyes watching him, one set blood red, one set icy blue.

Remy LeBeau, master thief, alpha mutant, and all around ladies' man, gestured to his companion and silently picked his way through the mansion. He was heading for Professor Xavier's old office. He was a man on a mission, and he was aiming to do some damage.

Behind him, just as silent but not as smooth, Piotr Rasputin, artist, warrior, and mutant as well, followed. They had been assigned for this task; their mutual strengths making the task seem easy.

Remy LeBeau, codename Gambit, slid a playing card out of some unseen pocket and charged it. As he slid it between door and doorframe he waited until he felt it connect with the doorknob, before pumping more energy into it. With a small sizzle the card slid through the lock and the door eased open. He crept in, automatically spotting the cameras and motion monitors. Charged cards took care of all of them. Now came Colossus's part.

Piotr walked straight to a bookcase and with no effort, lifted it (and it had to be like a ton with all the books on it) and moved it several feet away. Behind it, there was a safe. A safe that Professor Xavier had not known was there. Magneto, Gambit and Colossus's boss and Professor Xavier's partner, had put it there when he had lived at the mansion briefly after the disappearance. Since then, both Magneto and Xavier had gone underground, leaving all the manual labor to their acolytes and allies.

Gambit studied the safe, training telling him that it would be impossible to crack with any tool made by man. Good thing they had the combination. Twirling the dial between his nimble fingers, it took only seconds to have it open. Inside, sat a jewel, a bright red, big as a robin's egg ruby. Gambit took only the files next to it, though the temptation to grab the ruby was there.

Gambit handed the files to Colossus and shut the safe. Colossus handed the files back and moved the bookcase back into place. They had gotten what they came for; it was time for them to return.

Piotr took one last look around. The excitement and energy that only teenagers, young teenagers, could leave behind lingered. Even after three years, the X-Men still lived, be it only in these walls.


	2. Wild is the Wind

**Chapter One: Wild Is the Wind

* * *

**

The Windy City wasn't windy. It was an irony that Shadowcat appreciated. The night was still, all of Chicago tucked tight in their beds, never suspecting that mischief was afoot. High above the oh-so-still streets that echoed every heart beat and mugging, she crept. Much like her namesake, she was a shadow, weaving in and out of the hidey holes conveniently built into the roofs. She had a job to do, and as a mutate she would do it, no questions.

Mutate. No longer mutant. To be a mutant was to acknowledge that you have once been something else, something human, but Shadowcat no longer knew that. She was a mutate. Complete and separate from humanity. There was no comparison. She went by her codename, barely remembering a time when she had been anything but. She had dreams; however, as if only in sleep could she seek those small comforts. She'd once had a mother, and a father, and friends. Now, she was tool. An extension of her leader's power, meant to do his bidding, which she did, gladly.

Of course, it wasn't always pleasant, doing what her people demanded of her. Dangling off a thirty story building in the middle of winter wasn't really her idea of fun, but what was asked of her...

Above her, her partner loosens the rope, sliding her down another three stories. Lost in her thoughts, she'd miscounted. "Down one more," Shadowcat whispers into her communicator, a small device underneath the skin just inside her lip. It wasn't detectable, one of their best works of technology, as it was also a tracking device. In an emergency situation, it could be bitten out and spit onto the ground to leave a trail or to keep it from being found. Some of their scientists were discussing adding a small cyanide pill; just in case.

Shadowcat slid down smoothly, not even glancing up at her partner, one of few mutates she trusted with her life. Dangling hundreds of feet in the air, damn right she trusted him. Glancing around into the inky darkness (the streetlights were very, very far below and the moon was nowhere in sight), Shadowcat sighed. Now came the hard part. The window in front of her was touch sensitive. She could phase through it, but not with the climbing gear and rope attached. She would just phase through the window and take it off there, but her phasing ability had recently evolved into a spherical shape, meaning that after a foot, the rope wasn't in the field, thus was solid and would set off the alarm.

Shadowcat slowly slipped out of the harness, grasping the rope in her small, but steady fist. Then, she began to swing gently as if in a non-existent breeze. Closer to the window, until she was a mere hair away, and then she let go of the rope and floated through. Inside, cameras on a rail circled and swiveled in random patterns. At no second was the room not monitored. With a sweep of her hand through the fuse box just inside the window (but on the opposite wall of the door...after all, who would come in through the window thirty stories up?), Shadowcat shut down all electricity in the room, which meant the security system, the lights, and the safe. Since all were on the same fuse, normally this would screw any robbery attempt at the safe, which was electronically/vocally powered...however, what if you could walk through walls?

Shadowcat strode quietly, almost with no sound, to the large vault hidden behind a Chinese panel. You'd think Warren Worthington II would have been smarter, would have tried to hide it, but arrogance begets fools.

She phased through and if possible, it was darker in there than outside. Thanks to genetic engineering, she didn't need a flashlight. She wasn't called Shadowcat for nothing. Moving with quick and sparse movements, she wound her way around the priceless antiques, the glass encased jewels, and made her way to the small velvet box on a shelf near the back. It was hardly bigger than a child's jewelry box, but their leader had sent them halfway across the world to retrieve it, as soon as word had reached them that it'd been found.

Shadowcat flipped the box open to be sure it was the right object, and as the small, sparkling ruby-like gem glinted at her she whispered through the comm., "I got it. Meet me downstairs."

"You've got company."

Shadowcat slid the gem into a pocket inside her shirt, making sure that no bump was clear in the tight body suit. There wasn't, the jewel was completely hidden in her cleavage. "Who?"

"Mutants...a team, civilian. Clear leadership, and training. I suggest no confrontation."

"Agreed. Shadowcat out."

"Wisdom out."

Shadowcat debated how to go about this, but finally shrugged...and sank through thirty stories within seconds. Normally, someone would die when they did this, since dropping through the Earth's pressure so fast would cause oxygen to form in their blood, much like divers who rise to the surface to fast. However, because Shadowcat's phasing field slid her out of alignment with reality, the pressure didn't affect her. As she sensed Earth's gravity was pulling at her less, she slowed, until she was on the first floor and then she stopped. It wasn't as easy as it once had been, to be corporeal. Years of wear and tear had made it so that her natural state was to be intangible. It was almost always a struggle to come back, not just to the physical part. Mentally she delighted in being free of physical confines, to float without gravity or weight to hold her. To fly free, without rule, leader, or hope. Those were not mutate feelings though, so she shoved them down where they would not be detected.

Outside the door, a man was also lowering himself from a rope. He, on the other hand, was not so lucky with the gravity thing. Shadowcat hurried to help him stand as he landed and fell to his knees. His chest was smoking and he ripped off his jacket as it started to burn.

"What happened?" Shadowcat demanded.

"One of the team shot some pretty sparks and hit me. I'm fine, thanks," Wisdom replied sarcastic. They'd been partners for a year, and despite not liking each other, they worked well together. Banter and playing aside, he was hurt and it was her duty to make sure he was taken care of.

"Where's transport?"

"Not coming. Said it was too risky."

"He's a chicken shit, that's it."

Wisdom smiled and his angular, gruff face softened. "No arguments here."

Shadowcat sighed and looked up as she heard a whisper of wind. "It's not windy tonight."

"So?"

"So we're getting home the hard way."

"Awww...I hate that."

Shadowcat smiled, and it was evil. "Got another suggestion?"

"I have one, child..." A deep, slightly accented voice called from above. With a rush of wind, a tall African woman landed, her short arctic white hair ruffled by the wind. "Hand over what you stole."

Shadowcat turned and watched as the light of recognition lit across Storm's face. "Can't do that." Then, grabbing Wisdom's hand, she phased into the ground, and kept going...through rock, through magma, through gas, and the super hot liquid core of the Earth. Shadowcat took them through parts of the Earth that had never known the presence of a living person, and then she took them back. She took them all the way across the world and into relative safety that was Indonesia. Back in Chicago, Storm could do nothing but stare.

"You alright, Stormy?"

"Gambit...I think I just saw something, I could not possibly have seen."

The Cajun looked around at the empty street and lit up his cigarette. "Gambit don' see not'in."

"The intruders are gone. I must talk to the professor."

As Storm brushed past him, he sighed. Some things are never the same, and some things, they never change.

* * *

Shadowcat stalked into the Citadel, not happy. Seeing this, fellow mutates scattered, all save a few. Shadowcat's rage was legendary, and her violence spoken of in whispers.

"What's wrong, Kitty?" Cyclops asked, looking up from where he studied a series of camera shots, marking down who did well and who didn't, as mutants were tested in separate holding cells. It was imperative that only the strong survive and to do that, mutants had to be rigorously tested. To go from mutant to mutate was to be elite.

"Nothing. I completed the mission."

Rogue sighed and looked down from where she floated above them, her trench coat trailing just above head level. "Ya're lookin' more pissy that a cat locked in the closet."

"They were there."

Jean rose from her seat beside Scott and approached Shadowcat. Her face was still smooth with youth, but her eyes spoke volumes of what she'd been through. She asked, "Who?" though she already knew.

Shadowcat's face turned darker. "X-Force."

"Professor Xavier and Magneto's team?" Rogue asked as she finally set her feet onto the floor. There was an unreadable look to her face, a look Shadowcat recognized, but she hoped Cyclops and Jean did not. Shadowcat and Rogue were still as close as they'd ever been, going through the "process" of the past three years together. Though Shadowcat trusted her partner Wisdom with her life, she only trusted her soul with Rogue.

"Yes. Storm saw me."

"You were told to keep that from happening," Scott scolded.

She glared at him. "I'm aware of that. I was preoccupied with my injured partner. I don't believe she got a good look. In fact," she continued snidely, "I highly doubt it." Shadowcat's relationship with Rogue had not changed in three years, but her relationship with the others had. The X-Men were no more, not in spirit or body. The procession of mutant to mutate had changed people, made them other than what they were. Made some mean, made some quiet, and made some insane.

"He'll want us to check it out," Jean asked, wringing her hands. The worried woman persona was a façade, one the redhead adopted easily. Jean specialized in costumes, in deception. Shadowcat learned that early on in this life, so she watched skeptically as Scott calmed Jean with a hand on her shoulder.

"Allow me to speak with him...Rogue, debrief Shadowcat. When you're done, put her through a simulation. Make sure there are no lasting effects." _Lasting effects_, defined in the Citadel as subversive thoughts. It was essential that one always watch what you think. You never know who is listening in.

"Yessir," Rogue replied leading Kitty away and into a darkened hall. Behind them, Jean studied their minds, her illusion of concern gone. She curled her arm around Scott and allowed the light of his mind to soften the edges of her own.

"She's shaken, but not too much," Jean replied aloud to his unspoken question.

"And Rogue?"

"As unreadable as ever. He thinks she's plotting something. She was never as comfortable with our situation as the rest of us."

Scott sighed. "Assign someone to watch her. We can't have a leak early. It would ruin the effect. I'm going to talk to the leader, keep things running smoothly?" Scott smiled, brushing a kiss against Jean's cheek before walking away. Jean's eyes went cold with fire as he turned from her.

Jean smiled, but it was bitter. He was complacent here. Believing all she said. It wasn't Rogue he really had to worry about.


	3. Blues for Mama

**Chapter Two: Blues for Mama

* * *

**

The conference room was dark, only two figures inside with a smattering of lamps to light it. Neither welcomed light, preferring the dimness to the vulnerability light caused. Too often they had to disappear in the light, and mutates were usually more comfortable in the dark. It's easier to hide your sins that way.

"Are you sure they saw you?"

Shadowcat sighed and leaned back in her chair, pulling her legs close. In that position and that lighting, she was almost a child again. Her eyes were strong and intense under the hair that cloaked her, and no one would make the mistake of saying it. "Yes. I think Storm recognized me."

Rogue leaned forward and started to touch Shadowcat's knee, but froze in the motion. Shadowcat wasn't comfortable with touch. "Careful who ya say that to."

Shadowcat laughed bitterly. "Don't you think I know that? Maybe better than you?"

Rogue's smile matched. "Ah'm not the one doing stealth missions, now am Ah? Cyclops is in with the leader, but Jean isn't. She likes to be in on everything. She's probably listening now."

"Has it gotten worse?"

"Yes," Rogue stood and paced in front of the draped windows. Dark outside them, dark inside, and surrounded by beasts all around. "Psylocke was taken last week. No word, telepathic or otherwise."

"How's Warren?"

"His partner is missing in action, and no one will tell him anything. How would ya feel?"

"Disjointed. Lost. Alone."

"That was rhetorical, doll."

Shadowcat smiled and lowered her legs to the ground. She stretched and removed her outer coat. Underneath her maroon bodysuit shimmered. "Sorry. I always did like to answer questions-..."

"...-better left unanswered," Rogue finished, unconsciously rubbing the scars wrapped around her wrists as she did so. Tonight was evoking odd emotions in her, things that shouldn't be rising to the surface, things she'd tamped down on long ago. "It's the 'what-if's that get me."

"What?"

Rogue realized that she'd been speaking aloud and smiled reassuringly. "Cyclops said he wanted ya to run a sim."

"I'm not in the mood. I want to go check Wisdom," Shadowcat argued, knowing it was futile.

"Cyclops will check the roster; ya'll get me in trouble."

"You're always in trouble."

Rogue nodded and picked up a helmet-like object from a side table. She handed it to Shadowcat and did touch her shoulder this time. "It'll be over in a minute."

Rogue walked to a small control panel in the table while Shadowcat placed the helmet on her head. With a few taps of her long fingers, a simulation mock-up of tonight's mission was being broadcast into Shadowcat's mind. It was not the fairly normal mission parameter that Shadowcat was going through that was important. It was the wavelength used. Somewhere, in a room deep inside this building, a spook was on the same wave and was reading deep into Shadowcat's mind. While the virtual reality required all resistance and effort from her, the spook (read telepath) was seeking out every secret, every thought, and at the same time comparing the subject's mind to earlier mind scans, to be sure that no outside sources had been tampering inside.

The sim itself lasted only moments, though for Shadowcat it'd seemed like days. She removed the helmet, and set it aside, pushing a sweaty tendril from her forehead. Simulations take a lot out of a girl.

Rogue swore. "They found something."

Shadowcat jerked to her feet. "What! But I haven't!"

Rogue was typing fast, hoping to belay any actions taken. "They're sending security."

"I haven't thought anything!"

"Wait! Shut up...Ah got it!"

Even as stomping feet signaled the arrival of security, Rogue was canceling the order, using a sustained burst of theta waves directed on the wave length of the helmet to scramble the spook on the other end. The spook would have a head ache, but they wouldn't remember.

The door opened, and a tall man stepped in. "Is everything alright in here?"

Juggernaut. Former X-Enemy, current security-goon.

"Fine. Dismissed." Rogue wasn't to be ignored, and they did her bidding. Sometimes being one of the most powerful mutants in the world wasn't a bad thing. Of course, it also meant that in some circles she was of high interest, and it was those circles that Rogue spent most of her time avoiding.

"What was it?" Shadowcat asked, not to be left in the dark.

"The ghost picked up on some latent rebellion. Ah told you to watch your thoughts, Kitty! Now is not the time to be caught. They're relying on us."

Shadowcat bared her teeth in a silent hiss. "I know that. Not all of us can be unreadable like you...it was Storm! Why us? And not her? Not them? Why us?" She looked as if she would cry, something definitely not approved of by standard control.

"He thought we were the elite, and they weren't. We get the fun, they got nothing," Rogue whispered, the argument an old one. She turned to Shadowcat and spoke solemnly, the adrenaline still rushing and her worry coming to the surface. "Ya only have to last two more days. Two more days, and it's all over, Kitty. All of it."

Promises made before, and broken again. "My name is Shadowcat."

"And mine is Rogue, we live how we live because we have to. Soon, our choice will be clear," Rogue whispered, and the comfort was over. She had to believe that Shadowcat could do this. "Can ya handle the pressure?"

Shadowcat nodded. "You can trust me."

"And Wisdom?"

"His injury will sideline him, but I have no reason to see why he won't hold."

"Go to your quarters, be ready at 1000. We leave then," Rogue started, but stopped suddenly. "Ah feel...tingly."

Shadowcat knew instantly what she meant, and changed the subject. "Do I need to do anything else?"

Rogue shook herself out of her reverie, and nodded. "Yes, ya can go now."

Shadowcat rushed out, heading for the medical wing, brushing past Jean as she did so. A back glance proved that Jean had been heading for Rogue, but there was nothing Shadowcat could do now so she continued away.

"Can Ah help you, Jean?"

"Are you going to tell me what that was about?" Cold, piercing, a voice so changed that most wouldn't recognize it from its former life. Jean walked idly around the long table, stopping near the window to lean on and study Rogue's face.

"What?" Rogue asked, not looking at Jean, instead cleaning up the minimal mess she and Shadowcat had made during debriefing. Mutates never left evidence.

"Fine, don't tell me. I'll find out eventually. Secrets are only kept among the dead."

Rogue smiled politely but artificially. "Ya do that."

"How's Archangel?"

Rogue froze in the doorframe. "The loss of one's partner can be damaging. Ah'm sure you know better than Ah how he's doing."

"I do...would you like to know?"

"Mutates care for no one but themselves and their partners."

"Yes...but once you were his friend...maybe some of that lingers..."

A trap, Rogue recognized. Jean was good at weaving them, and even though she wasn't looking at her, Rogue knew that a slightly maniacal grin danced across the woman's face. Don't trust.

"No. It doesn't," Rogue replied, turning her head so that she could see Jean's silhouette against the window from the corner of her eye.

Rogue started to leave again, but Jean's voice stopped her, again. "The perfect mutate, right?"

Rogue turned all the way this time, giving a cold stare for cold stare, and evil grin for evil grin stance. "Ah try."

The silence was cold, and not comfortable. The two mutates recognized the other on an elemental path and knew that nothing could be done to stop one another. Mutually, they agreed to let it go.

"Good night, Rogue."

"Good night, Phoenix."

Rogue turned and left the conference room, nay, the Citadel. It was late, and she was weary. There had been a lot of activity today, and with her own partner off on a solo mission, she'd been left with administrative and control work. Test, process, and assign. The day's work was heavy but patterned. There was only three days until the Leader's complete plan came to fruition. The world would know. The world would realize.

* * *

Rogue turned onto the pathway leading to her home and was startled to find that a light was on inside. No one should have been home.

Placing the few folders from her interview with Shadowcat down, Rogue called up a ball of psionic energy, stabling it in the palm of her hand as she slowly opened the unlocked door. Inside, a blare from the television announced the score of the Green Bay _Packers_ versus Chicago _Bears_ game. Apparently, yet again, the _Packers_ had lost.

"I just lost twenty dollars. Damn _Packers_."

The energy faded into the air as Rogue recognized the voice of her partner, Sunfire. "Sunfire! Ah thought ya were in America! Ya scared the dickens out of me!"

Sunfire grinned as he rose to greet her. Rogue loved his grin, she loved everything about him. He felt the same.

Sunfire pulled his partner close and kissed her. It was deep, gentle, and utterly sparkless. One did not deny one's partner though. Rogue loved him, but not as she had loved others. She loved Sunfire as the Leader dictated, not as her heart did.

"How was work without me?"

"Boring," Rogue replied as she retrieved her folders and shut the door. "Ah'm hungry."

"When aren't you?"

"When Ah'm eating."

"Should I feed you?" Sunfire asked, holding Rogue's hand as he dragged her into the kitchen.

"Yes...ya should...omelets, chef! Three cheese and onion and potatoes."

"Anything else?" Sunfire asked sarcastically. Rogue did admit that as he sauntered around the kitchen he was attractive. Any red blooded woman would delight in his tall, Oriental yumminess, but while she delighted, she didn't want it like other women. At least, she didn't want him. Someone else called to her, and had for a long time.

"Are you ready for completion?" Sunfire asked idly.

Rogue tensed. Was he baiting her, like Jean? He didn't know of the real plan, he wasn't involved. It had been a condition of the plan she herself had set, that Sunfire never know until it was too late. Had she tipped him off? Had someone told him?

"It's only three days. And all this will be worth it! They'll bow to us, Rogue! We'll be famous, and powerful."

Rogue smiled and sipped at the orange juice he handed her. A mild mental scan proved that he was still in the dark as she wanted him to be. The way he had to be.

You see, Sunfire wouldn't understand. He'd see as betrayal. Mutates are loyal only to mutates. Rule number five.

He didn't understand.

None of them did.

Rogue wasn't a mutate. Nothing would change that. Rogue was a mutant.


	4. Little Liza Jean

**Chapter Three: Little Liza Jean

* * *

**

Jean Grey wasn't afraid. Mutants or mutate, you always had something or someone to fear. There were the normal people of the world, who go about their days, living their life...and there were her kind of people. Those who took action. Who refused to be a pawn. Jean Grey was no one's piece.

You had to look at life like a chess game, with all your players lined up in order. You can make strategies, and plot every movement, or you can play by the seat of your pants and hope for the best.

Jean plotted. She didn't plod through life hoping for the best. She used every inch of her abilities to make sure any situation played in her favor. Rogue didn't understand that. Rogue was impulsive, careless. Jean Grey knew of her plans, of her plots, and knew instinctively exactly what she could do to interrupt them. She wasn't going to, however. It was helpful to her own plans for the future to allow Rogue and Shadowcat their little hopes and dreams.

Jean settled in beside Scott in bed and chuckled lightly as her impulses and inner dialogue slowly slipped into dreams of fire and destruction. Her plans were concrete. Much like Rogue and Shadowcat, there would be no turning from her path.

* * *

Avalon. In Celtic mythology, it was an island paradise and the final resting place of King Arthur. In reality, it's a sub-orbital mutant haven. Recent events have left it the only one open to mutant populace. Three years ago, a lull in anti-mutant violence had most of said mutant populace thinking that normal people had begun to accept them...it had been a false hope. Less than two and a half years ago, a huge outbreak in violence, led by the anti-mutant group Friends of Humanity, had completely decimated the mutant population. How, you ask? With a handy little genetically altered virus called Legacy. In a single week, over five thousand mutants died. One month later the toll was at five million mutants...and one human. It was then that the governments started to actually fund and help. Imagine that? One human dead, and suddenly all the governments in the world are anxious to help...whoever said that mutant equality wasn't here was lying...

Back on topic, Avalon, home of the mutants, home of X-Force, the only remaining all mutant group dedicated to helping and protecting both mutants and "humans". At least some of the members stuck to that, and remained good and wholesome in their intentions; while others preferred to...reinterpret the mission goals...

As the X-Force Javelin landed in the hangar, five of its interchangeable yet constant members prepared for a long night of questions and explanations. They'd failed in their mission, something that rarely happened and would automatically require extensive excuses. Xavier didn't believe in failure; not anymore.

Storm sighed as she sat back from the steering module and cracked her weary back as she stretched. It took three hours of constant concentration and path correction to get to Avalon, but the safety the satellite afforded them was worth it. Storm smiled, for maybe she was just getting old, that's all. What else could explain her little vision earlier? Of course it hadn't been Kitty she'd seen. Kitty was dead.

Behind her Jubilee and Sam were conversing in low tones, their heads close in obvious friendship, if not something more. Three years ago, their best friends and confidantes had all disappeared. It was no surprise that since then the two had become like glue to one another, or so Logan reasoned. In truth, fraternization between X-Force members was looked down upon. No one reported any dalliances unless they started to cause problems. This deep in space, Logan figured, you had to take comfort where it came.

Storm looked up as Logan laid a hand on her shoulder, covering his with her own hand, she smiled. "Everybody out! Report to medlab for decompression check, and then onto reports!" Storm was used to the groans and moans that accompanied that. While Jubilee and Sam bemoaned it, but left anyways, Gambit remained to argue.

"Can Remy jus' type it in de morning?"

"No."

"Why not? Ain' no difference! Not'ing happened!"

Storm chuckled but it was bitter and Logan's hand automatically tightened in warning. Storm showing emotion in any way, shape, or form was always bad. "We failed our mission. We did not prevent the theft, nor did we apprehend anyone. Magneto and Xavier will want to know everything that happened."

"And? Remy can do dat better after seven hours sleep, dan after none!"

"Gambit...no arguments," Storm said sternly as she rose, smiling only a little at the sulky look on the young mutant's face. He may only be ten years younger than she (twenty five to her...well, you get the picture), but sometimes it seemed like a larger difference. Sometimes, she felt ancient, much like the goddess she was worshipped as in Africa.

A thought of home, and sickness rushed over her. She hadn't been home in over a year. She missed it. Missed the brush of dry heat on her skin as she woke in the morning to the call of lions on the hunt. She missed the wonder of a sunrise on the Serengeti, the awe of watching a thundercloud wash over the mountains, and the surprise of finding a small lion cub hidden in the underbrush. She missed Africa.

The satellite crackled with energy, and Logan grabbed Storm's hand in warning. Immediately, she knew what she'd done. She'd unconsciously tapped into the solar winds, much like she'd have done with the jet streams planet-side. The difference was that the jet streams allowed her to fly; the solar winds could knock the satellite off course and into the deep of space. Living in space had its drawbacks. On the plus side, being so far from the Earth meant that Storm wasn't as likely to tap into the weather and wreak havoc she didn't mean to. The down side...it was extremely enclosed, and her claustrophobia didn't like it.

Storm came back to herself, calling her flowing abilities back and closing them in a small box inside. She gave a tense smile for Logan and started to follow her teammates off the Javelin, only to be stopped by Logan.

"You didn't imagine it."

Storm didn't turn. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't see half-pint, but I sure as hell smelled her. She was all over that office."

She turned then and stepped close. "You mean it? I was not imagining it?"

Logan grinned. "'Ro? Would I lie to you? About this?"

"We must tell the Pro-...Xavier and Magneto. We must inform them!" Storm said excitedly. She'd been convincing herself that she hadn't seen...she'd been convinced that she was imagining...but she never could have imagined that after all these years...

"I already told them...they're in Cerebra right now..."

Storm was already gone.

* * *

Jean was awake to watch the sunrise, so she felt the disturbance. There was a reason why so many of the telepaths remained in the Citadel at all times. The Leader disliked the outside world prying, and that included meddling mutants. Jean would have ignored the tickle, and returned to a sleeping Cyclops in bed, but she recognized that slick touch of power.

It was Professor Xavier; he was searching, and searching hard by the head ache he left in his wake. He'd never have done that years ago, but in recent times his searches had taken on a harsher tone. Jean knew, cause for three years she'd felt and effectively blocked every mental search he'd made with his silly little machine.

Jean wrapped her hands around the bed post and studied her sleeping partner's face, and considered allowing the lesser mutates to handle it, but so close to the fulmination she couldn't risk it. Jean opened her mind and all her defenses. She shed her physical body and acquiesced to the call of the psychic realm. As usual, the amount of telepaths in building cluttered the space, so Jean had to struggle above it all, to where Xavier had cast out his net in search of something, probably a mutant.

Xavier burned bright blue in this realm, but Jean couldn't see him that clearly. It appeared that he was very high in orbit, probably on Avalon or Atlantis, the only two habitable satellites. Something about the color of his psyche was familiar to Jean, urgently familiar, but she brushed it off. She had a job to do.

Jean burned, bright and white-hot, as only the Phoenix could be. The flames spread, covering the entire realm below her, and all the ghostly signatures of the telepaths below her. With the ease of practice, she blanketed the entire island on which the mutate nation existed. Genosha. Home.

_Professor Xavier is home._

Jean grinned and it was evil. _No, he's not_, she told that tiny voice in her mind, _he's the enemy._

Suddenly, her aura wasn't flaming any more; it was solid, black, and deadly. When another wave of Xavier's psychic aura flashed out and rebounded against it, she knew that a serious jolt of pain had been sent to his mind. He'd know that a powerful psychic was here, but he would know who. On the off chance that he'd send someone to investigate, there were security measures already in place. Jean wasn't allowed to deal with security anymore. The last time someone had dared to come investigate while she ran security, had ended up dead. Poor Spyke. Never knew when to mind his own business. He really should never have left the Morlocks. As of two years ago, he'd never return.

Death delighted Jean, made her happy. Part of it was Phoenix, who while being elementally good, was also curious for new sensations, which had been it's weakness in the first place. Had the Phoenix been completely in control of what it wanted, Jean would never have been able to trap it inside and merge with it. Weakness tended to make one vulnerable, something Jean never intended to be.

Jean was strong. Phoenix was strong. Jean was Phoenix. And there was nothing the universal elemental being could do about it.

* * *

Xavier reared back and nearly fell from his seat. Pain reverberated in his head and he felt dizzy waves recede as the pain sharpened everything to pin-point clearness. Behind him, Magneto waited, poised to catch Xavier if he fell, but not too close lest he interfere.

"The block again?"

Xavier started to nod, before changing his mind about moving. "Just as strong as ever. I don't know who the telepath projecting it is, but they're memorable. And extremely strong-willed. Not very attuned to nuances."

Magneto smiled. "All brawn and no brains?"

Xavier scowled. "No. All brawn and all brain, but no touch for detail. She's so preoccupied with creating the strongest shield possible, that she's not feeling the smaller probes I send."

"Are you detecting anything?"

Once again, Xavier scowled. "No, only that when she's not projecting, then a dozen and a half other telepaths are projecting smaller but equally strong shields. I couldn't get in there with killing at least some of them."

Magneto straightened and thought. "Have you tried?"

Setting down Cerebra's cortical helmet, Xavier turned and started to wheel out of the room, forcing Magneto to take to the air so that he could. "I have crossed many lines for you, Erik. That one I will not."

"You crossed the lines yourself, I didn't force you."

Xavier sighed, and continued out of Cerebra. "I know. I'm just...melancholy tonight."

Any further conversation was stalled when Storm "stormed" down the hallway. "What did you find?" She demanded, her blue eyes sparking with energy (read lightning).

"Nothing. As usual. Whoever you saw, and Wolverine smelled is gone."

"That's not possible! She's somewhere!" Storm argued, wringing her hands in confusion.

Xavier sighed, knowing that the conversation was about to happen again, the same one they had every time Ororo thought there was a chance. "I haven't found any trace of her, Storm. I haven't found any trace of them in three years and that hasn't changed in the last two hours. If they've hidden themselves, for whatever reason, they still are." Abruptly, Xavier changed the topic. "Have you been to see Hank?"

Storm looked sheepish. "No."

"You know how important it is that everyone who makes the trip from planet to satellite be checked out. We don't need another Jay Guthrie," Xavier lectured, referring to Sam's younger brother who'd come down with Decompression Sickness and was spending the next month in an iron lung because of it.

"I know..."

"And you're to set an example. We may no longer cater to the younger mutants, but we still need to make sure everyone does what they're supposed to."

"I know!" Storm yelled, causing the lights to flicker and a strange odorless cold wind to shift up and blow her hair about.

"Calm down, Storm. It's easily rectified. Go now," Magneto explained, laying his hand on her arm. Immediately, the wind died and she wilted.

Storm latched onto Magneto's hand, a plead in her eyes. "Please...I just wanted to know..."

"I know, my dear. Go on, get checked out."

Magneto and Xavier watched as Storm left them, her shoulders hunched and pain on her face. Both knew the reason for her anxiety.

"She thinks that Evan is with the X-Men," Xavier said, though it wasn't necessary. Magneto knew as much as he, yet they talked of it just the same. Human beings tend to discuss things to death, even when they cannot change them.

"It's not likely. He disappeared a full year after they did. He's most likely dead."

Xavier sighed. "I know, and you know that. Hope lives for her."

Magneto sighed as well. "Hope died for me, when my son died."

Xavier nodded, and for a few minutes, the two stared into space silently. For Xavier, hope never died...it'd just gotten lost somewhere.


	5. Trouble in the Mind

**Chapter Four: Trouble In The Mind

* * *

**

Her house was silent, like a tomb, and like a tomb she felt the air cloying at her throat. How could she lay here in the dark beside her life partner and knowing that tomorrow she would be gone, and not be restless? Shadowcat smiled into the dark and felt Wisdom shift beside her, throwing his large arm over her stomach and pulling her close. She hated his touch. She hated the touch of people period. Mutates were not supposed to crave the comfort of human touch. Shadowcat didn't; Kitty did. Shadowcat was never quite sure when the distinction was made, or rather, where the line had been put, but she had gradually become aware that Kitty was still there, somewhere inside.

The process of mutant to mutate was supposed to wipe out any individual identities, any emotions, any tendencies, and any attachments that had been formed in a former life. That way, the Leader could form the specimen each mutate had been designated to be. Once the process was completed, the bar code and ID number was tattooed onto the back of the neck and the mutate was sent into the community to perform its function, or its mission as the Leader bid. Shadowcat was a stealth operative, a mutate designed for quiet operations, be they thievery or murder. She'd done both many times.

For that first year, she'd been a solo operative. Some, like Phoenix and Rogue, had been assigned life partners immediately, but the Leader had deigned that Shadowcat wait. Wait, she did. One year, five months, and one day, after a mission in Sudan, Wisdom had arrived at her door. He'd handed her his orders, he was to be her life partner. They would work together on all missions; except for the rare one that only one operative was needed. Eventually, when their functions had been obsolete, they would mate and form a child. Some, like Phoenix and Cyclops, had gotten a head start on that part of the life.

Wisdom stirred beside her, and Shadowcat turned her head to study him. The first time she'd met him, he'd been an attractive older man, and nothing more. They'd gone in for tests, confirmation, and tagging...the next time she'd seen him, he was something more. His skin had drawn her touch, his eyes fascinated her. The telepaths had done something. Sometimes, if Shadowcat wasn't near him often enough, she grew antsy, nervous; she needed him near. Not as much as he needed her. Through experience, she knew that he gained symptoms of withdrawal a lot faster than she. This would play into their plan. Shadowcat and Rogue had five days to get away and somehow complete their plan before Shadowcat would die. The link between her and Wisdom would kill her.

_**BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!**_

Shadowcat slapped the alarm off, but Wisdom was awake. She'd hoped to avoid this encounter. Wisdom grinned at her, not noticing how stiff she was. He swept his hand down her hip before sliding on top of her.

"Good morning, wife."

"Is it good?" Shadowcat asked, deliberately letting herself relax though inside she screamed for want of running away.

"It will be in a minute..." And the morning went on.

* * *

Rogue studied the foyer of the Citadel. It was quiet, and at four a.m. it was the only time it was. Two inane guards sat at the security desk, monitoring all the halls and rooms on this floor. For every floor of the building, there was a security desk, and at the top, near the Leader's level, was the main security office, where everything in the building and outside it was monitored. 

The guards, Wolfsbane and Morph, were inconsequential, since neither would be able to stop the plan that even now was in action. Rogue smiled as her fellow defectors stepped through the door. Shadowcat looked as nervous as ever; she'd never been a good liar. Rogue trusted her, trusted that she'd not crack though. There was nothing else she could do but trust at this late stage of the game.

Beside Shadowcat, Sage looked as calm as ever. Sage was one mutate that Rogue actually liked. While the process had worked on Sage, it hadn't worked quite like the Leader had intended. Sage still had free will. Like Rogue, she'd kept it to herself, only to recognize on an instinctive level the same level of disdain in Rogue. Together, they'd set this plan up. With Sage's computer like mind, and Rogue pure brawn and brashness, there wasn't even a chance of failure in their minds.

The guards perked up; discarding the training programs they'd both been working on. Wolfsbane was eager to work her way up the Citadel hierarchy, and her partner Morph was more eager to keep up with her. They dutifully checked the two mutates in, just as they had with Rogue thirty minutes ago. She hadn't gone to her office as she'd said, instead taking to the corner where shadows kept her hidden from sight. Shadowcat and Sage knew where she was, however, as her exact placement was part of the plan.

Rogue smiled in the dark, and watched as Sage calmly directed Shadowcat to the staircase, forgoing the elevator. It was a suspicious move, but it was necessary. Rogue gently reached out with her telepathy, encountering numerous signatures nearby. The spooks were three levels up, and Phoenix was four levels above that...in the Leader's quarters. Rogue quirked her eyebrow at that, and made a mental note of it. What was Jean Grey doing in the Leader's quarters at four a.m. while her mate slept away the morning?

Rogue left her question as that, a question, and proceeded to contact Sage. Sage was a spook, i.e. telepath, herself, so it was an easy connection.

_Sage?_

_Yes, Rogue?_

_Are ya ready with the package?_

_I am, we're delivering it indirectly to the Leader now. _Rogue nodded as she understood Sage's euphemism. The problem with providing a distraction large enough to allow the four of them that were in on the plan, was that the building was full of telepaths. How do you keep a plan to attack the leader of a cult-like community from a bunch of people devoted to protecting the person? Surprisingly easy. Or, at least, it would have been...

_**REEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOO! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOO!**_

Rogue flattened herself even further against the wall as an alarm she'd never heard before started to sound. Immediately, she called for Sage and Shadowcat to return to the foyer. Below her, Wolfsbane and Morph sprang into action, moving to lock the front doors, which just happened to be modeled after vault doors. They shut, they ain't coming open again. Rogue had no choice but to act.

She launched herself out of the corner, and using her flight abilities picked up speed. Swooping down she reached for Wolfsbane, but grabbed Morph instead. It was his surprise that allowed her the seconds needed to throw him over the desk and into the wall of monitors. He was unconscious, and only mildly hurt. Wolfsbane was extremely angry, however.

As soon as Rogue swooped again, seeking to grab her, Wolfsbane reached for her gun but not fast enough. Rogue swiped the mutate with her fist, also knocking her unconscious. Rogue touched down behind the desk and studied the flashing message that was covering all the screens not broken by Morph slamming into them. Within seconds, Shadowcat and Sage had phased through all seven flights of stairs and were joining her there.

"What's code 324?"

Rogue sighed. "Assassination attempt."

Sage quirked her eyebrow questioningly. "The package hasn't activated yet."

"It wasn't us...but we're taking this opportunity. Call Bishop. Tell him we'll be there in a few minutes. We're leaving now."

Shadowcat and Sage turned immediately, and Rogue waited until they'd left the building before turning back to the monitors. She pulled the keyboard towards her and started to program in a series of numbers. The screens blacked out instantly. Elsewhere, the psychic plane that linked all telepaths in the building went down. The security keeping the Community out of the radar was completely down, and it would take almost three hours to get it up again. Rogue smiled. The perfect time frame to allow her, Sage, Shadowcat, and Bishop to get the hell out of here.

* * *

The plan had been simple. They would use a distraction at the Citadel to simultaneously take down security and any monitoring the Leader had in place. As insiders to the most intricate of processes, between Rogue and Sage they had all the information they needed for that. When they'd succeeded in that, Bishop and Shadowcat would ensure that they actually made it past the perimeter, which was simultaneously patrolled by aerial mutates and border robots (read Sentinel). Shadowcat would frequence her phasing field so that they couldn't be seen from above, while Bishop would use his energy blasts to take out any opponents that could see through the shield like the border guards. 

Simple things tend to complicate very quickly. Luck was on their side, however, and they made it all the way to the small town fifty miles away without incident. They'd intended to trade in the vehicle for another, and make it to the next town on the coast, and do the same thing there, and so on and so forth, until they'd made it to Sorhan's shipping port, the only open border on Genosha. This plan changed the instant they stepped foot into that small town, one that had a name, but none of them knew it. Usually, Sage would have gleaned the information needed from the thoughts of nearby pedestrians...but there were none to glean from.

Rogue stepped down off the back of the jeep and studied the figures in the middle of the road. At first, Bishop, the driver, had thought they were animals, but they weren't. The entire populace was in the street, the one that went through the middle of the town and continued down the entire coast of the island, and they weren't standing.

They weren't doing much of anything, considering how dead they were. Sage leaned down but didn't get out of the jeep. "It looks like a psionic wave did this."

"I thought psionic waves only incapacitated people?" Shadowcat asked.

Rogue shook her head. "With enough force behind them, any kind of psychic attack can kill." She should know, she'd once wiped out Congress with one...oh, yeah...all in a good day's work for the Leader. "We need to move on, now."

"Why the hurry? I thought we were gonna draw this out, try to stay out of sight as long as possible?" Bishop asked, his deep, raspy voice matching the hard, African exterior. Most people couldn't tell that his mother had been a Caucasian/Aborigine woman, and that his father had been African American...they looked at him and saw "black". Rogue looked at him and saw an ally, a very powerful and knowledgeable ally. Shadowcat looked at him and saw a threat...of course...she was the only one of the four of them who had mutate conditioning. She probably saw them all as a threat.

"We're ditching this ride, and we're not going to Sorhan. Ah think we should grab a boat and take our chances at sea."

"You know they have more security directly out to sea here than they do in Sorhan, why take the chance?"

"Phoenix."

Shadowcat lowered herself to the ground beside Rogue and studied the forever frozen in agony, screaming faces of the people surrounding them. "What about her?"

"She knows what we're doing."

Bishop grunted. "She's going to tell the Leader."

"Ah doubt it."

Sage studied Rogue's face. "Why?"

"She just tried to kill him."

Shadowcat gingerly started to walk through the bodies, heading for the small dock several hundred feet away. "How do you know?"

"When the alarm sounded, she was the only one in the room with him...and she's got motive."

"What motive?"

"Ah can't say right now...Ah've just had a feeling...the past couple weeks...she's been planning something."

"And you didn't feel it necessary to tell us?" Sage asked, a hint of anger in her voice. Rogue smiled, never having seen Sage lose control even that little bit.

"No, Ah didn't. We didn't need anymore complications. The Leader was already chomping at the bit to begin the Awakening, and we couldn't stall the plan because Uber Bitch wanted to cause some trouble. Let's go. We don't have time to dawdle."

Rogue joined Shadowcat where she was walking to the peer. Behind them, Sage and Bishop shared a brief look before hurrying to the peer as well. If Rogue was hiding this, what else might she be hiding from them?


	6. Just In Time

**Chapter Five: Just In Time

* * *

**

Rogue and Shadowcat watched as the water streaked by. It was obvious that Sage and Bishop were distancing themselves from Rogue and Shadowcat, and had been since they'd left the shore behind five hours ago. While those two stood at the front of the boat, directing it, Shadowcat and Rogue stood at the back, watching their asses. Didn't want any mutates sneaking up on them.

"Can we trust them?" Shadowcat asked, sneaking a look at the duo in front. They were standing stiff, deep in conversation.

Rogue smiled. "No. We won't have to for much longer now."

"What are you planning?"

"Do ya trust me?"

Shadowcat nodded. "Always."

"Then don't worry about it. Ah know what has to be done."

Rogue always knew what had to be done, and often she was the one who had to do them. Tough jobs, easy jobs, she did them. Without complaint. Without whine. Without weakness. Weakness was a luxury she'd long ago given up.

"Sage?" Rogue called up, as Shadowcat moved away to rest on one of the speedboats couches. "It's time."

They were almost to the boundary of Genosha's perimeter. There was a small slice of free space, barely a mile wide that they would be traveling through before the telepaths on a nearby island would shield again. It was their only chance at doing what they'd come out here to do. They now had ten minutes.

Sage quickly came to Rogue's side. "I'm ready."

Rogue smiled, softly so to put Sage at ease. "Then let's do it, sugah."

* * *

Being a telepath in space was at times, wonderful. The ease of being able to let down the constant guards that kept the world out, the silence of having no one around for thousands of miles. It was heaven. Sometimes, it was hell too.

There he was, in his study, enjoying a glass of scotch and a book of poems by Yeats, when a message slammed into his head with all the force of a rhino on charge and the subtlety of threading a needle...if the needle was twenty feet wide and the thread just as big.

_Professor Xavier. We are contacting you from the coordinates of 102 degrees south, 37 degrees west. You must come immediately. We have information on the locations of the X-Men. Come immediately. We cannot stay in this place for very long._

Suddenly, the link stopped. As Xavier shook his bald head, it took several seconds for what had been said to penetrate. Without even thinking he hit the button on his chair, the one used only for emergencies.

Almost immediately, Magneto, Gambit, and Wolverine were bursting through the door. "What's wrong, mon ami?" Gambit asked after ascertaining that no one was in the room.

"We have to go. Get the jet ready."

The trio looked at each other, then at Xavier. "Why, Charles?"

"I've just been contacted by someone saying that they knew where the X-Men were. We have to leave immediately. They won't be at the coordinates long."

Magneto and Wolverine shared a look, a look born of similar circumstances to this. Professor Charles Xavier had been losing touch with reality since the X-Men disappeared. Still, they catered to his illusions, because even slightly crazy, he was the most powerful telepath in the world. Within ten minutes, the Javelin was pointed towards Earth and moving fast.

* * *

Rogue and Kitty stood alone under the boat's yawning. They watched as a large plane of some sort hovered above them. It'd been there for only a minute when a ramp in the undercarriage lowered. Apparently, the fancy plane could land in water. Shadowcat watched as Rogue smiled, not quite understanding why the situation was funny. She didn't understand much these days.

Even as shadowy figures became clear on the ramp, they still didn't move. It was a rule of combat; never make the first move when the enemy will come to you. Such rules had been programmed into the mutate mind, and after hearing them tons of times, even Rogue had them memorized.

Storm and Magneto, the only two capable of flight, both levitated off the small platform and onto the open deck at the back of the boat. At first, they could see nothing because of the sudden transition from dark to light, from shadowed aircraft, to sunny ocean. Storm turned around looking intently into the shadowed hull of the boat, and suddenly shrieked. Two pairs of eyes looked back at her, and she recognized them both.

"Great Goddess...Kitty? Rogue?" Storm couldn't move, the shock on her face evident. Magneto was cooler than that.

"Can we assume you're the ones who sent the message?"

"Always so cold, Erik...I'd hoped a couple years would have softened you up..." Rogue sighed. Suddenly, her head jerked to the left. In the distance the sound and sight of militant motorboats could be seen and heard. "We have to go."

Magneto noticed them as well. "Running from them?"

"Yes, Ah am. Now..." Rogue gestured. Magneto tapped Storm on the shoulder, who regained enough of her senses to offer to carry the two girls up to the craft. "No. We can do it ourselves." Rogue explained, before taking Shadowcat's hand and taking to the air. Within seconds she was on the craft, amidst people she'd never thought she'd see again. She released Shadowcat, who didn't release her. The entire situation was unnerving for her. She didn't want to admit it but she felt uncomfortable, bordering on afraid. They were placing themselves at these people's mercy. It wasn't a mutate sort of situation.

Wolverine stepped closer to the door, a familiar scent wafting on the slight breeze to him. Suddenly, it dawned on him. "Stripes?"

Gambit looked up from the controls at that, rising from his seat to join Wolverine near the door. Rogue smiled and stepped away from the blinding sunlight that obscured her features to the men. "Yes?"

Wolverine and Gambit could only look in shock. Much like Storm had. Magneto remained sensible however. He landed on the platform and immediately ordered that they take off. X-Force did so, but only in the most mechanical way. Their minds were still trying to wrap around the presence of two old friends, the hope of which recovering had long ago been thrown to the wind.


	7. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

**Chapter Six: You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

* * *

**

The journey from ocean to space was a surprisingly short one, though the passengers didn't appreciate it. Unasked questions hovered in the air, as well as accusations, doubts, and regrets. X-Force had no idea how to deal with the two X-Men, and it showed. The silence was, as they say, deafening.

For two hours, it stayed like that. Gambit and Storm snuck glances at the duo in the back, while Magneto and Wolverine played it cold, not giving in to the urges to do the same. When they were on final approach to Avalon, Magneto radioed for Beast to meet them in the landing port.

"Why the need for Beast to meet us?" Rogue called out from the back of the plane, startling everyone.

Magneto was never startled, or surprises, or shocked. He was cool like that. "To confirm who you are, of course."

"Of course," she replied with a smile. That smile stayed on throughout the landing, the physical by Beast, and the eventual escorting to a meeting room, though, by the time they actually were met by the rest of the X-Force, that smile was starting to look extremely scary. Shadowcat remained silent the entire time.

Finally, they were seated and surrounded. It wasn't malevolent, or at least, it wasn't meant to be. Years of combat conditions made Rogue edgy though, so she naturally saw malice where there was none. Or maybe, she was just seeing malice. Once again, all was silent.

It surprised Rogue with how no one wanted to speak. Normally, in tense situations, humans babble, they ramble, it's a coping mechanism. X-Force wasn't coping. It was almost as if they were frozen, unsure of anything. She wasn't surprised.

Beast slowly came through the door, closing it slowly in deference to the blanketing hush. He'd aged since Rogue last saw him. He'd aged a lot. Instead of just being blue, he had touches of gray going on. He was no longer the agile, youthful Mr. McCoy she remembered. Suddenly, it dawned on her.

Rogue didn't know these people anymore. They were no longer her friends. Her family. They had relationships, ideals, and experiences she knew nothing about. Rogue came to the obvious conclusion. These people could not be trusted with the truth.

Beast cleared his throat, and though no one turned to look at him, he knew he had everyone's attention nonetheless. "They are, indeed, who they say they are. The DNA matches as close as they possibly could, though there are a couple slight differences I can't account for."

"It's okay, Beast, Ah can explain those."

"I bet you can," Jubilee said snidely. Secretly, they were all relieved. This wasn't a hoax. They were real, which meant that somewhere else, the rest of the X-Men were probably real too. Real, and _alive_. In appearances though, skepticism had kept them alive, and this situation was no different.

"Let's focus," Xavier stated softly but sternly. He was smiling, a small smile, one that said he hadn't failed them after all. "Can you tell us, where the other X-Men are? What happened to you all? Where have you been?"

Rogue put up a hand to silence the Professor. "Ah'm sure y'all have lots of questions. Can we please keep them to one at a time? Ah have a headache."

The others sat there and stared at Rogue, trying to reconcile the image of this hard-boiled warrior woman with the insecure Goth girl who'd left them three years ago. They couldn't.

Storm was the only one preoccupied with the other woman sitting there, and in the quiet after Rogue's request, she posed a question. "Why doesn't Kitty speak?"

Rogue turned that cold stare onto Storm, remembering why she liked the serene woman, for her insightfulness. Then she turned and stared at Shadowcat. "Why don't you speak?"

Shadowcat turned her still face to Rogue and quirked an eyebrow. "I speak when I've something to say."

"Well, there ya go...next question?" Rogue asked, her tone now bordering on polite snideness. There wasn't much time, but Rogue knew this had to be done.

"Where are the other X-Men?" Sam asked, his voice deeper than when she'd last seen him. His hair was longer too, not to mention he wasn't the skinny boy he'd used to be.

"They're not X-Men anymore." Shadowcat supplied.

"What do you mean, Kitty?" Xavier asked, moving forward so that he was leaning on the table.

"They are not X-Men, in the way that I am not Kitty, and I am not mutant. We are mutate."

Rogue smiled. "They are mutate."

X-Force glanced at each other, in confusion. Beast chose to speak up. "What do you mean? What is mutate?"

"What are mutate?" Shadowcat corrected, starting to get into the spirit of this little question and answer session.

"How do you explain what a mutate is?" Rogue asked Shadowcat rhetorically. "It's better if Ah start from the beginning, when we disappeared. How does that sound?" There were murmurs of ascent from the room, so Rogue settled in and struggled to find a way to explain this without giving too much away.

"When we disappeared, we went through a subspace portal, created by a mutant named Fitzroy, formerly of the Hellfire Club. Almost immediately we were separated, categorized, and tagged. For some reason, our mutant gene was nullified in the cells, and in addition, Fitzroy uses life energy to create the portals, so we were all very weak. We were trapped. Within days, one by one the X-Men started to leave and not come back. On the third day, Kitty disappeared. On the fourth day, they came for me."

"What happened?" Gambit asked, unable to stand the long pause for effect Rogue was doing.

"They became mutates. It's a genetic process, involving long stints in this large machine that uses microscopic lasers to resequence your DNA. It's all the same DNA, obviously, but it changes the way the mutant acts, thinks, and basically is. When that's done, they use telepaths to keep them in line. Ya think the wrong thought, it gets zapped. Ya feel something that's not appropriate, ya get zapped.

"Finally, when you've become all the mutate you can be, ya're assigned. Given missions and tasks to complete. Ya're also given a mate, and when the time is right, ya're expected to produce little mutate children to further the Leader's cause."

"Who is the Leader?" Magneto asked, not quite as shocked by the story as everyone else. After all, he'd gone through a similar experience as a child in Nazi Germany.

"Ah don't know."

"You're lying."

"And if Ah am? It's my choice. Ah don't even know if Ah can trust y'all anymore. And ya expect me to put all my cards on the table?"

Rogue and Magneto got into an intense little staring contest, which everyone hesitated to stop. Storm stalled everything, just by kneeling in front of Shadowcat.

"Is that why she's this way?" Storm brought her hand up as if to touch Shadowcat's face. Shadowcat jerked away before she could and slammed out of her chair, with a knife in hand and poised to slash anyone who came near. Rogue, in those few seconds, grabbed both Storm's hand and Shadowcat's. The scene was frozen for a few moments, with everyone in shock and how quickly it had turned sour.

"Yes, that's why she is this way. Shadowcat doesn't like to be touched, ya'd do well to remember that," Rogue said forcefully to all of them, as she released Storm, who fell back against Wolverine and backed away. Rogue picked up the chair and pulled Shadowcat over to sit in it again. "Ya be good! Don't cut anyone."

Shadowcat nodded, and Rogue turned back to the group. "Where were we?"

"The Leader?" Colossus supplied from the back of the group, it was the first time he'd spoken up. No one else saw, but Rogue, more attuned to the intricacies of the world, did see when Shadowcat stiffened just a bit. It was not the mention of the Leader that did it, it was the voice. Then Rogue remembered, Kitty had had a thing for the tall Russian, spawned by time spent alone in Apocalypse's Egyptian tomb. It appeared that Shadowcat's brief relapses were increasing. This could not be good.

"The entire process was to transform mutants into mutates, the Leader's own little private army."

"To what end?" Xavier asked, curiosity evident in his voice.

Rogue smiled at them all, and it was bitter. "To take over the world, of course. It started small, with just a few towns. Then, we helped him spread. The Leader now has complete control of Genosha and all the surrounding islands. In two days, he's going to take Australia. From there, Asia. From Asia, Europe and Africa. Then, the Americas. It's estimated that it will take him three years to accomplish this."

Magneto laughed. "And just how is he going to do that?"

Rogue's smile stayed just as bright. "By killing all the baselines, and turning mutants into mutate."

"Do you really t'ink that will work?" Gambit asked, incredulous. X-Force had dealt with loonies like this for the past three years, and none of those plots had worked.

"Ah know for a fact, that it will."

"And how is that?" Jubilee asked, still incredibly sarcastic.

"Ah've seen the future. Ah know what happens."

"You've seen the future, like...the future future?" Sam asked, and for a second Rogue could see that boy she'd once lived with. Then he was gone.

"Yes, the future future."

"And how'd you do dat, chère?"

"Let's just say, it's one of my gifts."

Beast brought the conversation back to the original topic. "Why aren't you like Kitty?"

"My name isn't Kitty. Don't call me that. I am Shadowcat."

Beast swallowed, and across the room, Jubilee made whirly hand movements by her head to indicate that Shadowcat was crazy. "Why aren't you like Shadowcat?"

Rogue laughed for the first time. "Why ain't Ah a mutate? Is that what you mean? Well, truth be told, Shadowcat isn't a real mutate either. That's the reason she's here with me. Real mutates have allegiance to the Leader and their mates, and that's it. However, mine and Shadowcat's particular gifts interfered in the process, though no one but us knows that. It all has to do with DNA. My ability, to imprint a person's memories and special mutant abilities, comes from skin to skin contact. What my does, is it takes a section of that person's DNA and replaces part of my own with it for a limited time. The longer I hold on, the more the DNA is deeply entwined, ergo the longer I have it. When it fades, my DNA reverts back to the original sequence. Since the mutate process depends on DNA modification, the first time I imprinted someone after the process, I reverted back to mutant. Shadowcat is different, she's part mutate, but not completely. Part of her DNA is always in phase, always intangible. No modifications could be made, but the part of her DNA that hasn't been phased, is modified. She's like a dirty half-breed basically." Shadowcat gave Rogue an evil look, but she only grinned. "Get it now?"

"Why did you come to us now? You want us to stop this "Leader" from doing what he's gonna do?" Wolverine asked, because though he did love having Stripes and Half-pint back, there's always an ulterior motive.

"It's not the leader we have to worry about anymore. It's Jean."

"Jean Grey? She's alive?" Storm asked, speaking up as if the trauma of having Shadowcat try to cut her was passed.

Rogue frowned. "They're all alive. They're just not who you want them to be. Jean Grey, codename Phoenix, isn't who you think she is. She's now the most dangerous mutant on the planet."

"The shield. The one over Genosha. It seemed familiar, it's Jean's?" Xavier asked, but he already knew the answer.

"Oh, yes. Jean is the Leader's right hand girl. She's who ya're gonna have to watch out for. Now, can we get to what we want from ya?"

Magneto tilted his head to the side and studied Rogue. "Our help in this little world-scheme isn't what you want?"

Rogue shrugged. "Ah couldn't care less what happened to the world. That's me helping ya. We need help with something else."

"What else is wrong?" Wolverine asked, concern evident in his voice, as if the "Leader Situation" wasn't bad enough.

"We need Professor Xavier to help Shadowcat."

"What would you like me to do?" Xavier asked, not liking how that sentence sounded.

"Ya remember, that Ah said that each mutate was assigned a mate. Well, they're not just assigned, telepaths forge a link between the two, so that they can be inseparable and further ensure that the procreation of a superior mutate species to inherit the world. Shadowcat has three days for that link to be severed, or she'll die. Already the effects of such distance between them is creating cracks in her personality and her mind. Ah suggest we get it done as soon as possible."

"Do you not have a mate?" Magneto asked.

"Ah do, but he's a mutate and Ah'm not."

"Why didn't you just bring them with you?" Jubilee asked.

Rogue laughed. "No."

"Why not?"

"They don't know we're even here."

"Why not?"

"They couldn't be trusted."

"Why not?"

"Jubilee, are you always this irritating?"

"Are you always this tight-mouthed about info we need?"

"Ya don't need this information, ya're being nosy."

"So?"

It was almost like they were back at the mansion. Almost.

"We don't have time for this," Shadowcat stated. There was a sheen of sweat on her brow, and she had a raging migraine.

Rogue noticed all this immediately. She tapped into the healing powers of a mutant named Sara, who she'd imprinted on one of her first missions, and sent the waves of healing energy into Shadowcat. Within seconds, the gripping pain in her mind eased. The curiosity of the X-Force's at what had just happened didn't.

"What was that?"

"That was me healing Shadowcat. We really must hurry."

"If you can do that, I assume you're using talents of mutants you've absorbed before, then why don't you just sever the link yourself?" Magneto asked.

"Ah'm not a telepath. Using the kind of power of telepathy needed to sever that link would give me an aneurysm. Ah would die. As it is, just contacting the Professor gave me a headache. Are we finished here?"

Xavier nodded. "We can see about severing the link tomorrow. I'll need scans and some time to figure out how best to do it before proceeding."

Rogue nodded. "Where shall we be held?"

"You won't be held. You'll be residing in some spare quarters in alpha quadrant."

"Foolish to not put us in cells. Ya never know what we'll do." Rogue replied to Wolverine's explanation.

"We like to think that as former X-Men, we can trust you," Xavier explained with a smile.

Rogue frowned in response. "Ya might want to get rid of that attitude if we go to battle. Those 'X-Men' would sooner slit your throat than hug you."

Silently, X-Force watched as Wolverine escorted Rogue and Shadowcat out of the room. Jubilee was the one to break the silence, and say the most appropriate thing.

"That was freaky."


	8. Here Comes the Sun

**Chapter Seven: Here Comes the Sun

* * *

**

In less than twenty-four hours, the Leader's plan would automatically go into action, whether or not he was still alive. Rogue doubted he was dead, completely, but knew that Phoenix was now in some sort of control. Rogue knew things about those two, knew things about the plan, knew things about everyone that people doubted she could know. Her powers were more far-stretched than they wanted to believe.

Now wasn't the time to laze about. X-Force had long ago left the conference room for their beds, trusting that Rogue and Shadowcat would remain in their quarters. Trusting where it's foolish to give.

Shadowcat was in bad condition, her fever spiking and night terrors waking her at odd intervals. Wisdom would be near death by now. Rogue had thought it would take several days for the effects of separation to get this bad. She was wrong. She was right. Normally, it would have taken several days. Phoenix was amplifying the link, making it worse. Rogue had no recourse but to speed up her own schedule. Leaving Shadowcat in her sweaty and rumpled bed, Rogue slowly returned to the conference room where they'd been questioned. Xavier remained in there.

Going over the files of the last three years, seeking clues that could have led them to finding the X-Men, but had been ignored or overlooked. Surely, there had been something. Rogue smiled out of the darkened hallway. Then, she continued on, knowing for what she searched, but not able to detect where it was.

As she turned the corner, instinct had her stopping second before she would've bumped into one of X-Force. Gambit to be clear. He stared at her, his eyes hooded except for the surprise to find her wandering the halls of Avalon.

"Gambit guess when the Rogue said not to trust her, the Rogue meant it?" He smiled a slow, lazy utterly charming smile that had no affect on Rogue whatsoever.

"Ah usually say what Ah mean."

"Can Gambit ask where you're going?"

"Gambit can ask," Rogue replied, walking around him and continuing on the corridor. With a brief flare of power, she found a suitable alternate to find, thus covering her tracks. "Would ya like to join me for some tea?"

Gambit kept his observations to himself and walked alongside her towards the cafeteria, which was right around the next corner. He knew that hadn't been where she was going, but he wasn't sure why. "Gambit would prefer cognac, but he take what he get."

With a few minutes of preparation, Rogue had her tea and Gambit had his coffee (alcohol was not allowed on Avalon). They sat at one of the tables near a window into space and spent a few minutes studying one another.

Gambit noted that she'd aged well. Her hair was longer, to her waist now, and the bold streak of white that dominated had apparently become slightly larger. Her eyes were still the smoky grey he remembered, but her skin was now naturally pale instead of augmented with make-up. She hadn't gotten taller, which hadn't been needed since she'd been tall for a girl in the first place. She had an air of confidence she hadn't had before. It made everything about her slightly brighter. Whereas before, he could restrain himself from reaching out and touching, now, he didn't know if he could handle touching.

Rogue studied him as well. She'd seen pictures of him from the Citadel's security monitors, since all mutant activity was of interest to the Leader. His hair was the same length, his body slightly leaner and harder. He had a scar cutting through his eyebrow that hadn't been there before, from the fight in Argentina, no doubt. His hands were calloused and rough from years of fighting and using them too hard. His eyes, the same color, but colder. Mentally, he was the same old Remy.

"Tell me, Remy...why did ya seek me out?"

Gambit smiled. "Remy didn't seek you out; he merely stumbled upon de belle in idle walk. Good for me, non?"

Rogue smiled. "It's not nice to lie."

"Remy don' lie."

"Magneto asked ya to talk to me."

Gambit swallowed. She'd obviously read his mind and garnered that bit of knowledge. "I t'ought you said you weren' no mind reader?"

"Ah said Ah wasn't of the caliber needed to help Shadowcat. Ah never said Ah wasn't one at all."

"What happened to you, chère, that made you like this?"

Rogue smiled bitterly. "Many things, mon sir, many things. So, how long are ya to keep me occupied?"

"Mags say it only take ten minutes."

"To scan my mind, and deduce if Ah'm a threat?"

"Oui."

"Magneto isn't as stupid as Ah thought."

* * *

Kitty rose in the dreams, seeking to protect her soul from the demons. They chased at her, wearing the faces of her friends and she didn't know what it meant. She craved something she didn't know, and in the dark that craving echoed and became stronger. A man called to her, in pain, as he was surrounded on all sides. Lightning forked out and struck at him, pain from all sides, pain that came to her by association. He screamed and she screamed with him. She hadn't known the price of freedom that he would have to pay for her. She wasn't sure she'd have done anything different.

Pete's blue eyes were in the darkness, but they no longer sparked at her. In the dark, he was still and silent. Dead. Kitty cried for him, cried to him, and cried at the shadowy figures that surrounded him. Her world was crumbling and her mate was dead. What was she to do?

"Katya?"

Voices from above and the light calling her back to reality. This was reality. It wasn't here, it wasn't there, but it was somewhere. Peter Wisdom was dead. Her fault.

"Shadowcat?"

Fingers are her arms, pinching, reminding her of the beginning, of the pain of genetic manipulation. With a wrench of her arm, she was out of the stranger's grip, the dream's hold, and wide awake and weak. Her eyes opened and she stared at the large male figure beside her bed.

"I'm sorry, Katya. I heard you from the hall. You sounded in pain." Russian accent means it could only be Piotr Rasputin, Colossus.

Shadowcat started to speak, but her throat was so dry it came out a croak. Piotr picked up the cup of water beside her bed, and sat down near her to assist her with drinking it. Her hands shook so badly she couldn't hold the glass. She was so weak that the meager hold she had on his hand that held the glass could have been a ghost. All these things, Piotr took in and noted, and worried. He was a kind man, who cared for all beings and creatures. To see such a small and fragile looking girl in such pain hit nerve endings in him he didn't know he had.

Finally, Shadowcat spoke. "Who is Katya?"

Piotr grinned sheepishly. "It is your name in my language."

"Kitty?"

"Da," Piotr affirmed.

"My name is not Kitty."

"Is that not what you were called all your life?"

"It was a nickname I had several years ago among certain people. It is not who I am. Not anymore."

Piotr nodded and set the glass of water aside. "Your real name is Katherine?"

Shadowcat nodded, pulling her legs close to her chest so that she could make herself as small as possible. Some instincts could not be curtailed.

"May I call you that? Or perhaps, Kate?"

"I am called Shadowcat."

"That is so formal. Surely, you would not mind?"

Shadowcat thought on it. "You may call me...Shadow?"

Piotr laughed. "That is not what I had in mind."

Shadowcat thought on it some more. If she was to truly remove all vestiges of mutate from her life, then acquiescing to a new name was part of it. "You may call me Kate."

Piotr nodded. "It fits you."

And it did. The last three years had not been kind to Shadowcat, and it showed. Lines of maturity were at the corners of her eyes, eyes that were as blank and cold as a cloudless day's sky. Her face was so without emotion, she could have been a statue. Looking down, Piotr noted small bruises and burns and scars on her arms. Some healed, some not. It was the large and painful looking scars that wrapped around her wrists that garnered his attention.

"What are these?" Piotr asked, gently lifting her hands and looking at the scars.

"They're from the Chamber." He looked up in question. "Where the genetic manipulation took place. It's a painful process, so many struggle, and need to be shackled. I fought the shackles and I harmed myself."

"It looks painful."

"I'm told I almost severed the veins."

Piotr nodded, and started to rise. A glimpse of scar on her neck had him staying. "And that?"

Shadowcat lifted her hand and felt the beginning a long deep scar that went from her neck all the way down her spine. "That's where the Chamber began the manipulation."

"The genetic manipulation?"

"Yes. They open my spine and started there. From there, the changes were spread throughout my body."

At Piotr's request, she turned and raised her shirt, showing him what she meant. The scar was precision straight. Ragged too. They hadn't done a good job of closing. It was still pink as if fresh, even though the operation had been done three years ago. "It hurts." It wasn't a question, but Shadowcat nodded anyways. Piotr stared at the back of her neck, before briefly laying a kiss at the nape. "I'm sorry."

"You needn't apologize for pain you didn't cause," Shadowcat said matter-of-factly, lowering her top and settling back into bed. As she did, a streak of pain ran from the crown of her head to her feet and back again. She stiffened, and bit her lip.

"What is it?"

"Pain. I'm fine. I am mutate. Pain is weakness. Mutates have no weakness." It came out so perfunctory that Piotr could tell she'd said it many times.

"Shall I call Dr. McCoy?"

"He could do nothing. I can only wait for Rogue to return."

Piotr nodded. "She is with Gambit."

Shadowcat eyed him. "How do you know?"

He ducked his head. "I heard Magneto ask him to distract her while he performed some scans."

"Of Rogue?" He nodded. "She will not like that."

"Magneto feels it must be done. He does not trust you."

Shadowcat smiled, old muscles aching in disuse. "He shouldn't."

"I trust you."

"Why?"

"I see something in you, Katya. I do not believe the others are looking deep enough."

"You see nothing."

* * *

Rogue smiled over the cards, watching as the Cajun's tell showed her that he was bluffing. Poor boy. Probably didn't even realize that when he lied his eyes glowed a bit brighter. Rogue really didn't need a tell, as Gambit's intentions were plain to a telepath, even if she wasn't a natural one.

"Ah raise ten Oreos."

Remy smiled. "Check. Show me what you got, chère?"

Rogue grinned. "Royal flush."

Remy's smile slipped away in disbelief. "Dat's the fourth one you've gotten, woman! I t'ink you cheat!"

"Ah didn't deal, Remy, ya did. If anyone is cheatin'..."

"You a devious woman, Rogue. Devious."

She laughed, and enjoyed herself far more than she had for years. She'd forgotten what she'd been doing before, and was just idling now. Magneto had finished his scans over half an hour ago. Rogue had felt them, having more experience with detecting subtle invasions than most. Rogue also sensed that Piotr was with Shadowcat, but that was something her friend could handle.

"Another game, Cajun?"

"I wish, chère. Too late for moi. Gambit got training in de morning."

Rogue pouted. "Party pooper."

Remy laughed and began to gather the cups and cards. Storm would kill him if he left a mess in her kitchen. "Time for bed for de Gambit...but if you like, chère, you can join me."

"Ya always was a charmer, Remy." Rogue smiled as she joined him at the sink and dried the cups he washed. The dim lighting of the kitchen made everything seem mysterious. Seem worthy.

Remy grinned and breathed lightly on her ear as he leaned over her to set a cup on the drainer. "I charm you, Rogue?"

"Ya charm everyone, Cajun." Rogue let him stand close, enjoying the contact that was most definitely not her mate.

Remy turned the water off and dried his hands on a towel. He wasn't playing anymore, his face serious and considering. Rogue adjusted her temperament to match. "So, you're charmed by me?"

Rogue pulled the towel from his hands, and turned from him, drying her hands as she started to walk away. "You could say that."

Remy grasped her arm, and she allowed him to pull her back, fitting her back to his front, as his head rubbed the side of her's. "Remy t'ought of you. Dese last three years. You and me, we got unfinished business."

"We always did. Doesn't mean it will get finished, now or ever," Rogue replied lightly, not letting it show that she'd thought of him as well. A girl's crush had taken three years to bloom into the only form of love she'd ever known was for herself and herself only.

"Maybe I want it to finish, chère. Ever t'ink of dat?"

Rogue turned in his arms, enjoying the play of shadows on his angular face. She leaned up, brushed her lips on his, and used his brief moment of freezing to slip free and walk to the door. Once there, she paused. "Ah've thought of it, but there are things to be done, Gambit. Things that have been done. Ah can't think of myself until all my friends are safe. Ah'm not near selfless enough to stray."

* * *

Yay. New chapter! I had serious doubts as to whether I would ever continue this story, but after recent events, I feel I'm in touch with the characters enough that I can. I hope to have a new chapter each week. 


	9. Strange Fruit

I got much love for mah last chapter, for which I'm thankful. It's nice to know mah hard work is appreciated.

Now, most of you musically-inclined will realize that the title of this song is a song sung by the great Lady Day...however, in mah opinion, the version Nina Simone does is better. 'Course, I say that about all the songs she does.

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Strange Fruit

* * *

**

Rogue woke at precisely six am, Genoshan time, as she had for the last three years. She'd only had about three hours sleep, having gone to bed at 2 am according to this satellite's clock, which was now telling her it was five am. Genosha was one time zone ahead of Avalon. Rogue would use this to her advantage.

Slipping into the same clothes she'd worn yesterday, Rogue briefly stopped to check on Shadowcat. Still feverish, but oddly cold, had produced a clammy sheen on the girl's face. She was murmuring in her sleep, but what she said wasn't needed. Rogue knew what had happened yesterday, having foreseen it during those long months she'd deliberately reached out with her adoptive mother Destiny's powers. It'd given her many probably outcomes for this situation, and she knew all by heart. The fact that Wisdom had died in most of them made it a probably outcome. Rogue hadn't dare tell Shadowcat. Even desperately wanting free of him, the connection and bond between them was there. Shadowcat had wanted to seek another life, but she hadn't wanted to at the cost of her mate's life. The blood of his death was on Rogue's hands, but it was something she could deal with. Shadowcat was fragile as it was.

Rogue slipped out of the quarters they'd been assigned and into the darkened hall, Avalon's only concession to the earliness of the hour. Rogue reached out with her original power, imprinting, and sought out the tags she'd left on these people. It'd been a recent evolution, brought on forcefully by Tessa. Anyone Rogue imprinted or ever imprinted was on her radar. She could sense them near, and could track them through invisible "tags" she'd left behind in their DNA. She knew instinctively where everyone she'd absorbed was and what they were doing. Since she'd absorbed close to a thousand people, sometimes it overwhelmed her. Sometimes, like now, it was an advantage.

Most of X-Force were in what appeared to be their quarters, as they were almost all sleeping. Dr. McCoy was in a lab tinkering with some blood samples he'd taken from Shadowcat and Rogue, Magneto was in a much smaller form of the Danger Room, practicing his abilities (Rogue sensed that age was taking it's toll in that he appeared to have lost much of the control he'd once had), and Xavier was in...Cerebro? No. This one was a lot more attuned and stronger. He called it...Cerebra. That was Rogue's trajectory.

Carefully making sure to short out any monitoring devices in the halls so that he would have no warning of her coming, Rogue proceeded down two levels and inward. Cerebra was in the direct center of the huge satellite. It required a cornea I.D. to enter, something that was easily passed with minimal shape-changing. Contrary to popular opinion, when one took another's form, it required intimate knowledge. If you're just going for a physical likeness, it's easy as pie, but to get the fingerprints, cornea prints, voice, and all of that the exact same takes intense study or information on the subject. Rogue had learned this at Mystique's imprinting. Her mother, now long gone, was an expert in all forms of shape-changing, something most shape-changers these days, young whippersnappers, didn't know and didn't care about.

As the doors to Cerebra opened, Dr. Xavier turned and watched in surprise as Rogue stepped into the room and let the doors shut behind her. "You're up early, Rogue."

"How can ya tell on this hunk of space junk?"

"Avalon is one of the most sophisticated satellites in orbit right now, second only to Dr. Reed's."

Rogue smiled. "Junk."

Xavier sighed, and turned away to face the panel in front of him. "What may I assist you with?"

Rogue slowly joined him in the large circular podium in the middle of Cerebra. "Nothin' much. Ah had a few questions."

"Ah. Well, after all the interrogations yesterday, I imagined you were quite tired. I can answer any questions you'd like to ask now, or we can wait for the rest of the debriefing later. The others have discovered more questions they'd like to ask."

"Well, this question is kinda personal, Doc."

Xavier smiled. "I have time for all my students."

Rogue smiled back. "Have ya told anyone about ya blackouts?"

Xavier felt the smile slide away. "What blackouts?"

"Come, now, Doc. Don't lah to me."

Rogue was sitting on the panel of equipment in front of him, and as he started to turn his chair to leave, she hooked her feet into the wheels, preventing movement. "I have had no such thing, Rogue. I do not know what gave you this-..."

"Impression? It's not an impression, its fact. An important one. They've been happening for about...three years now, right?" Her smile was bitter with knowledge. Last night, in her dreams, she'd figured something out. Something important. Something that had to be brought public. "Let me explain, Doctor Xavier. After rooting around in old files on the network computer y'all handily left in mah quarters, Ah connected a few dots. Three years ago, when we were home alone in the mansion, you were at Muir Island, recovering from extensive mental damage brought on by a mental sojourn to Shi'ar territory. While weakened, the Shadow King attacked and took control of your body. That was the first blackout. Coincidentally, during the period of his possession of your body, we, the X-Men, were taken. The exact same amount of time.

"After consulting more of ya computer files, Ah connected that every time the Leader appeared to the masses of Genosha for his public rallying speeches and punishments, you were either incapacitated or nowhere to be found. Ah found that highly irregular."

Xavier glared. "What are you trying to imply, Rogue?"

"Yes, I'm sure we'd both like that answer," Magneto boomed into the cavernous room from where he was entering the room. He didn't look murderous, yet, but his anger was well on its way to thundering.

"Ah'll come out and say it. Ah think Xavier, the most powerful telepath on the planet, is the Leader of Genosha. Ah think he's somehow mentally projecting the image of the Leader and is planning to take over the world. Ah don' know if he's doing it consciously or if this is some sort of manifestation of his darker personality and subconscious, but Ah know he's involved."

Magneto scowled. "I highly doubt that Charles would..." Magneto trailed off that thought as Xavier started to laugh. It wasn't the normal, slightly reserved laugh that was usually emitted from the paraplegic's mouth...it was loud and abrasive and utterly maniacal. Rogue, sensing a large movement of power rising up from the man, shoved his chair back, where it caught on the edge of the panel and tumbled over. Xavier spilled onto the ground, but he wasn't hurt.

Slowly, because of years of disuse, Xavier stood, weaving. He was smiling in an oddly crazy way, and the voice that came from his mouth wasn't his own. "Very clever, little girl. I should have known you'd be trouble. Should have killed you three years ago when it became clear that the Mutate process hadn't taken to you. I let you live, because you fit into my plans. Now, it's too late for you stop them anyways."

Magneto gathered to him all his power, his eyes glowing with the effort. "You are not Charles Xavier. Who are you?"

Rogue ignored the old mutant and glared at "Xavier". "Ah don't care about your plan. Take the world, Ah don't give a shit. But Ah won't let you hurt mah friends. Ah'll save them, if it's the last thing Ah do." "Xavier" viewed this little vow with mild disdain.

"You don't care if I murder millions of people?"

"Not really."

"You won't interfere."

"Ah can't guarantee that."

Magneto didn't like to be ignored. He'd reviewed the facts in his mind, and had come up with a logical answer. "Shadow King! You face me."

Both Rogue and "Xavier" laughed. Rogue explained. "This isn't the Shadow King. He was banished three years ago, remember?"

"Then who is this!"

Rogue smiled. "This is the one person who ever infiltrated Dr. Xavier's mind so deeply, and he's done it before. Say hello to Lucas, Dr. Xavier's son."

Suddenly, Xavier's eyes, before a nice mellow brown, blazed blue as he slowly clapped his hands. "Very well done. How did you know?"

"Four years ago, you attacked Cyclops and Jean and Dr. Xavier. Ah heard all the stories. Soon after that attack, the good Doctor and Ah were doing some mental cleaning out inside mah head. Ah've been in and out of your father's mind, and he in mine. Four years ago, Ah sensed a taint to his mind, and he explained it was ya. It dissipated with time. For the last three years, something about the Leader seemed so familiar. Ah figured it out yesterday, because that same sense of familiar was on Xavier. It took me a while, but Ah figured it out. Somehow, when the Doc was weakened three years ago, ya snuck in and started ya work. First, ya took what he loved most, the X-Men. Now, ya're working to do the anti-thesis to what he wants, you're taking over and planning on destroying the world. Ya're going to set up the mutates as the dominant species, and any mutant who doesn't want to be in ya own private army will be killed. The baseline humans don't even get that option."

Lucas nodded. "You're a lot more clever than I thought. I assume you used that little fortune-telling gift to figure this out?"

Rogue shrugged. "Actually, it's so simple a child could figure it out."

Lucas shrugged, too, and as he did so, his astral form slipped out of Xavier's body, causing it to fall to the floor with a clang. With a small mental tweak, his body became mostly opaque. He was still only an astral form or he'd probably have become corporeal.

Rogue watched as Magneto stooped to check on Xavier, who was apparently just unconscious. She then turned and asked the question most bothering her. "What about Phoenix?"

"What about her?

"She tried to kill you just yesterday."

"Yes, she did." Lucas remembered that vividly. He'd been mildly surprised to see the beautiful redhead in his quarters so early. She usually made her visits when her husband was on shift, and couldn't seek her out. When she'd used her limited pyrokinetics to lash out and him and nearly kill him, he'd instinctively returned to his original body, now in a hospital ward somewhere in Nova Scotia. On Genosha he'd possessed the body of an older gentleman, whose name he'd never known. That body was long gone, but maybe now was the time to return to his original body. Though it would take several of the tests he'd established to prove he was the Leader, he was doubtless that eventually he'd be back in his old station and overseeing every facet of his beautiful plan. After he killed Phoenix.

Underneath Rogue's hands, a sudden beacon came on. A large screen came down from the ceiling, and it was zoomed in on what appeared to be a map of Australia. From the east, hundreds of small red lights, and several large, were converging on the coast. Rogue knew what it was, but explained for Magneto.

"The plan is commenced. The Mutates are taking Australia."

Lucas watched as Rogue pulled up statistics from Cerebra, using it as if born to it, or at least trained extensively in its use. "According to this, they'll have taken it in two days."

"I guess I must bid you adieu. I've things to accomplish." Lucas waved jovially as he slowly started to fade out. Magneto made one last effort to wrap his magnetic fields around the astral Lucas, but since this was purely a mental image, it didn't work.

Rogue used telekinesis to lift the still-out Dr. Xavier, and started towards the door.

"Where are you going with him?" Magneto demanded.

"Ah'm taking him to Dr. McCoy."

"And then?"

"And then we're calling X-Force together, and Ah'm going to tell you mah real plan."


	10. Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

I want to thank all my reviewers again. Yes, this is a wonderful story. It's read by wonderful and articulate people.

And...DarkWolf, babe...thanks for all the reviews...

* * *

**Chapter Nine: Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

* * *

**Rogue watched from the swivel chair at the head of the table as X-Force and the few civilians on Avalon argued. What they were arguing about was really moot, but they didn't know that yet. 

"Xavier isn't the Leader! How could he be?"

"I know what I saw, Ms. Lee, and it came from Xavier."

"What about Lucas? Are we going after him?"

Dr. McCoy stepped from the rabble of the arguing adults and looked pointedly at Rogue. "I think it's time for some truth, young lady."

Rogue quirked an eyebrow and smiled. "What makes ya think Ah haven't told you the truth?"

"Your pulse spikes when you lie."

Rogue glared at him. "And how would ya know that?" She put up a hand to stop him from speaking. "Internal sensors calibrated to my heat signature, yes? Ah would say Ah feel violated, but that fact that ya did it makes me proud."

The rest of the audience finally stopped conflicting and took their seats, obviously as eager as McCoy to have the truth. Distantly, Rogue heard the doors of her assigned quarters open and footsteps head this way. Shadowcat had woken up and decided to join them.

"First off, Ah didn't come here to get ya help. Ah came here to use what ya have."

Magneto nodded. "Cerebra."

Rogue smiled. "Yes."

The door opened and Shadowcat stepped in. Immediately Rogue stood up so quickly that the chair fell to the floor as an invisible force whipped through Shadowcat and slammed into Rogue, sending her flying into the window (which was thankfully thick given that they were in space and one crack and they could all die). X-Force rushed to their feet, but that same invisible force pushed them back down.

Shadowcat didn't look like herself. Her eyes glowed with a red fire, and her skin seemed nearly translucent, as if someone was looking out of it at them, as if things were moving in there that shouldn't have been. She lifted her hand into the air and gracefully she floated onto the table. She walked slinkily, nothing like the smooth gait she'd used before. She smiled and it wasn't her smile, but that of someone else. Someone Rogue knew very well. She recognized that smile.

X-Force did not. "What's going on?" Sam asked, his arm around Jubilee to keep her from jumping at Shadowcat as she walked past them on the table.

Magneto answered. "Someone has possessed her."

Storm supplied a guess. "Lucas?"

Rogue shot that down. "No."

"Den who, chère?"

Rogue slowly pushed the telekinesis off her body, and lowered herself to the floor. "It's Phoenix."

Shadowcat/Phoenix laughed. "Always were good at guessing games, Rogue."

"What are ya doing here, Jean?" Rogue stepped up to the table and retook her seat. She wouldn't let this bitch intimidate her.

"I've come to deliver a message."

Silence.

"Well, deliver it then," Rogue said impatiently.

"In such a rush, Rogue! Maybe I'd like to see my old friends. It's been so long," Shadowcat/Phoenix said as she stooped to run their hand through McCoy coif before turning to hiss at Jubilee who toppled her chair over backward in fright. They laughed.

"These people have nothing to do with this. What is the message?"

"The Leader is gone. This is my plan now, and I suggest you stay out."

Rogue laughed. "And what will ya do if Ah don't?"

Shadowcat starved to undulate, and slowly blood began to trickle from her ears and nose. Rogue didn't cave. Phoenix stopped the psychic manipulation she'd been doing to Shadowcat's body. "You don't care if I kill her?"

"Ah was planning on doing it myself, but feel free. She knows the risks."

Phoenix cocked her head but she didn't follow up on the threat. "Maybe I'll just reach out and kill you instead."

She tried. Lord, did she try. Rogue felt as the psychic tendril slipped through her shields, and started poking around. Phoenix had wanted in Rogue's very interesting mind for a long time. Now she had opportunity. Rogue let her.

Phoenix stimulated several psyches, causing physical transformations in Rogue, but she couldn't make her break. Rogue turned blue and furry, then became taller and blonde, then small and bug-eyed, and finally a nice scaly blue. Rogue shook off Phoenix's influence and smiled as Shadowcat/Phoenix pouted.

"Ah have complete control of my body. Ya can't kill me by possession. Ah've dealt with it before."

Phoenix slammed the psychic tendril into Rogue's chest, and the probe was so physically minded that it actually punctured her body. Blood rushed out and down Rogue's stomach, but even as Phoenix retreated in satisfaction, Rogue's body healed the wound.

"This really isn't productive, Jean."

Shadowcat/Phoenix sighed. "Why do you fight me so? Together, we could do some damage."

"Ah don't wanna do damage. Ah want freedom."

"Freedom is overrated."

"Said the slave to the caged bird."

"You remember your Genoshan fairy tales."

"It was more like a poem."

"Don't contradict me."

"Don't be wrong and Ah won't."

Shadowcat/Phoenix sighed and stretched her arms above her head. "I rather like this body. Maybe I'll keep it. I know Cyclops would enjoy playing with it."

"Goodbye, Jean."

"What do yo-..."

Rogue slammed her own psychic prod into Shadowcat (not Phoenix) and caused her to slip into phase, effectively throwing Phoenix out of her mind. Shadowcat shook her head and reconstituted herself.

Dr. McCoy and Colossus helped her down off the table, and when her legs proved too weak to hold her, they escorted her to the infirmary. Rogue watched them leave, then turned her eyes to the stares/glares/ogles of the remaining group. She smiled. "What?"

"Could you please explain, Rogue?"

"Sure thing, Erik! See, that was Phoenix, who the day Shadowcat and Ah were escaping, blew up the Leader's apartment, effectively killing him. Or, at least, his body. As we both know, Lucas is still very much alive."

"Wha' was your real plan, Rogue?" Gambit asked.

Rogue ducked her head. "The _real_ real plan or the one Ah made up to get y'all to help?"

"The _real_ real one."

Rogue sighed. "Ah was going to use Cerebra to sever the link between Shadowcat and her mate, Wisdom."

"Yeah, that much you told the professor!" Jubilee interjected, though she shut up when the rest of the table glared at her.

"Xavier wasn't going to do it."

"Why not?" Magneto asked, he'd known that whatever the tests had told Charles had made him decide to not do it, but he didn't know what they'd told him.

Xavier wheeled himself into the room, mostly-recovered from the possession and subsequent psychic damage, and answered that question himself. "It's highly probable that such action will mean Shadowcat's death."

"Shadowcat is going to die anyways." The table turned back to Rogue. "Her mate is dead, and if she isn't bonded to a new one within 60 hours, her mind will collapse. Literally."

"What does that have to do with the plan?" Sam asked.

Rogue smiled bitterly. "Shadowcat was the experiment. If the link was severed, best case scenario, she'd be unconscious for a while, worst, she'd die. The question was could the link be severed?"

Charles wheeled himself down the room and beside Rogue's chair, but she refused to look at him. "You're going to try and use Cerebra to sever the mental links between all the mates in the Genoshan Army." It wasn't a question so she didn't answer. "Even if it could kill them all."

"Probabilities say that most likely the mutates at category three or higher, will survive."

"And the rest?"

"Collateral damage."

That statement was met with silence, but Rogue hadn't expected anything less. The fact that they'd truly believed that she'd changed so much in three years to not care that someone was taking over the world and planning on corrupting it beyond repair meant that they'd probably never known her at all. If someone was taking over the world, no matter where she was, eventually they'd get there. Rogue had a sense of self-preservation a mile wide which was telling her to stop this foolish mission in its tracks, no matter the cost. She was prepared to do that, even if it means killing herself in the process. After all, even she was partially mated.


	11. When I Was a Young Girl

Woot woot.

Yeah. That's all I'm saying. I'm awesome. Damn. Said more, didn't I?

* * *

**Chapter Ten: When I Was a Young Girl

* * *

**

Rogue let that wonderfully volatile statement rumble around the room, before turning sharply and leaving them. Silence was fraught with shock and tension as X-Force thought on what she'd said. Before anyone could speak however...

"She doesn't mean it."

They looked up as Shadowcat was re-escorted into the room. "She doesn't mean it," she said again. "She's not that cruel. Not anymore."

"How can you say that? She's like...evil."

Shadowcat stared hard at Jubilee. "If you think that's evil, you're more naïve than I thought. She's the good of us. She's forgiving, and kind, and protecting. She's kept me from darker things than Phoenix. She's forgiven me for the many horrible things I've done. She's been there to let me talk, when I had no one to turn to."

"How?" Jubilee asked, still unbelieving.

Shadowcat sat down in Rogue's former seat, and started to tell a story she'd almost convinced herself was a dream. "I killed Nightcrawler."

Silence. Shock. Awe.

"It was an accident. I can't remember if I told you, but I was mated immediately. To Nightcrawler. It was during the first simulation that it happened. We were doing combat runs, and I phased through a wall. They said that it strained the mental link between us and caused his brain to hemorrhage. We didn't know it. He told me he had a headache, but we continued the simulation anyways." Her eyes were glazed over as if her mind wasn't quite there. Piotr covered her hand with his, and waited for her to continue. "When he teleported to get over a wall, he never came back. The spooks theorize that because we both had physical powers that affected our bodies and placement it made our link dangerous. When he teleported into the other dimension, they say it broke the link and he had an aneurism. Because I was in phase when it happened, I didn't feel the backlash and I didn't die to. After that, they ran tests on me, and brought in all teleporters in order to ensure it didn't happen again. They were contemplating dissecting my brain when Rogue stopped them. I'd killed her brother, but she saved me anyways. That's when we started to make this plan. To stop this. To stop them."

Shadowcat ducked her head down and drew her knees to her chest. "They won't die as she said. Some of them, the weak ones, might, but she told me that the most that will happen is that they'll fall unconscious. She doesn't want you to go down there with her. Doesn't want you to see."

"To see what?" McCoy asked.

"To see her when she kills Phoenix."

"Why does she have to kill her?"

Shadowcat looked up. "Because Phoenix is the one sustaining the mental links between mates."

"Ah! This is what I don't understand! What's with the matey thing? Why does she have to destroy it?" Jubilee asked, her finger pointing at Shadowcat in righteousness.

"The DNA sequencing is merely to enhance the abilities of the mutants and weed out imperfections. It's the mental programming perpetuated by Phoenix and aided by the rest of the spooks that's holds the mutates captive. Without it, they'd return to who they were before. They wouldn't be under the Leader's control anymore."

"Then why not just do it now? Get it over with."

Shadowcat shook her head at Sam's question. "We have to be prepared for the fallout."

"What fallout?"

"This mental link is the only thing keeping some of them sane. Without it, they'll lose any mental cohesion they have, go berserk and try to destroy everything and everyone. For some of them, like me, it's like an addiction. We've been under subjugation of the link so long that our bodies are going through withdrawal. Shakes, sweats, hot flashes," Shadowcat explained, holding up her hand so that they could see it shake. "We'll need the most help. I haven't even started the worst of it. Rogue tells me that there's a chance I'll go berserk like some of the others."

"What about the rest? What will happen to them?"

"Half of the mutates will fall into temporary comas, their minds healing themselves. The rest, the small percentage left, mind you, they'll get sick. These are the mutates who've been under it's influence longest. Some of them for years and years. They were the first. They'll get sick. They might die. They might survive. I'm told it depends on how strong their will is. How much they want to live."

Gambit nodded. "So dat's de plan?"

Shadowcat nodded and surreptitiously took Piotr's hand under the table. "It's the most non-violent one she could think of. She doesn't want any more death. Any more violence. After being an assassin for three years, I agree with her."

Jubilee nodded solemnly. "I knew she wasn't really the bitch she seemed." Sam elbowed her in the side. "What? It's true. You know you're all thinking it." Jubilee turned back to Shadowcat. "You know, I don't think I've heard you say this much since you got here. And, you didn't say 'like'."

Shadowcat allowed herself a small smile, and ignored the raging migraine behind her right eye. She knew they had questions, and knew Rogue was too prideful and secretive to bother herself with explaining to these people. It left it to Shadowcat, as tired as she was, to do it.

Storm stood, and the room silenced again. "Do you know where Evan is?"

Shadowcat ducked her head again, and used her unoccupied hand to draw invisible lines on the table. "And if I do?"

"Tell me. I want to know."

Shadowcat nodded. "He's near the Citadel. On a cliff by the sea."

"He lives? A house by the sea?" Storm's blue eyes were so hopeful, but Shadowcat felt nothing when she replied.

"In a mass grave."

Silence. Shock. Awe. A vague sniffle as the truth finally dawned to Storm and she recognized what she'd known for so long. Spike was dead. She had to accept it. So she nodded. "I must call his mother." She turned, but stopped at the door. "Thank you, Kitty. For telling me."

Storm left and Shadowcat shrugged. "There's no point in lying."

Gambit stood to leave too. "Remy t'ink he go find de Rogue."

The others watched as he left. McCoy took his now empty seat, next to Shadowcat. "What of this machine? The one that does the DNA sequencing? It must be years ahead of what's on the market."

"It was designed by a Dr. Sinister, and uses the same stones Magneto used to evolve Cyclops, Sabretooth, and Havoc."

Piotr drew in a deep breath, and the others turned to him. "Gambit has a history with Sinister. He is not a nice man."

Shadowcat smiled again. "And any man who'd do this to hundreds of people is?"

He nodded sheepishly, before taking in the quickly lightening pallor of her skin. "I think that Kate needs her sleep, yes?"

Shadowcat let her head fall back as Piotr stood. McCoy stood too. "Yes, I'm so sorry. You're going through a traumatic experience; would you like to stay in the medical lab with me? I assure you it's quite comfortable and I can keep a good close eye on-"

"No."

McCoy shut up and along with the other three left in the room (Magneto, Jubilee, and Sam) watched as Piotr picked up the small woman and slowly took her from the room.

Jubilee took the opportunity for another smart-ass remark. "So...anyone else confused but not, but still mostly confused?"

* * *

Shadowcat knew that Piotr wasn't taking her to her assigned quarters, but didn't really have the energy to care. Her migraine had expanded to behind her other eye, and she burrowed her face into his shoulder. The only man she'd ever been this close to was Wisdom, and she hadn't enjoyed that nearly as much as she did this. Maybe it was the choice. With Wisdom, it was a given that she would be with him. With Piotr, she wanted to be with and near him. 

After taking the elevator to another level, Shadowcat opened her eyes to a larger than normal slate door. It opened soundlessly. Inside, it was dark, but felt homey. He set Shadowcat down on his bed, with was covered with a soft wool caftan. Piotr didn't turn on the lights, but did light a few candles, so that she could see but wasn't overwhelmed.

"Would you like to take something for your head?" He asked in his deep accented voice. His back was turned to her as he poured her a glass of water.

She shook her head before realizing he couldn't see it. "No thank you."

He nodded and brought her the water, kneeling down to watch her as she sipped.

"Why didn't you take me to my quarters?"

"I thought you might like to stay somewhere not quite as severe."

She nodded and let her head fall back onto his pillows. "Why are you taking care of me?"

He smiled. "Because something in me tells me too."

* * *

Another short-ish chapter, but at least we got some explanations out. So, now we know the real plan...or do we? And if we do, do we know everything? What is Rogue hiding from Shadowcat herself? And what will happen when Gambit finds Rogue? What will she do when he confronts her? What will they do to each other? Oh, and...we gets some ACTION next chapter. Not the kind you dirty pervs want though. 

I also know that this chapter took a bit, but I was just finished my DC Huntress trilogy over in the JLU section, and it took alot out of me. If you think this story is good, you should read that one. Some of the best of me went into that trilogy, and it's drained me. sigh It's over now. I guess I'll have to devote myself to y'all now...snicker


	12. Do What You Gotta Do

A/N: Look, pa! A new chapter!

* * *

**Chapter Eleven: Do What You Gotta Do

* * *

**

The Citadel was dark and empty. There was a vaguely decrepit look to it, though it had been only been several hours since the Mutates had cleared out, taking most of the equipment and supplies there. The lights were dimmed since all power was being focused on the boundaries surrounding Genosha. Whatever was left went to the troops even now boarding boats for transport to the Eastern Australian coast. It would be a "quiet" invasion, with all communication shut down, and all life expendable. The Mutates would take no prisoners.

Phoenix smiled and slowly walked up the stairs to the top floor. She was alone, Cyclops having journeyed to the shores to guide the boats and monitor activity on that end. Phoenix felt that she needed time alone to say goodbye to the great tower equidistant from the surrounding shores of Genosha. She'd instructed the Mutates to abandon the facility. She had no need for such a monstrosity. Fifteen levels of pure phallic overcompensation.

It did have one thing going for it, though, and that was the view from the top. A balcony jutting out of the "Leader's" bedroom, a room Phoenix was familiar with, and a view she was also familiar with. So high in the air, no buildings around, and she could see for miles. To all the shores, she could see. She stepped into the bedroom, crossing to the balcony, ignoring the dried blood stains on the floor where she'd shoved a blade into the "Leader's" body. She knew he wasn't really dead, but the body he'd possessed was. He wouldn't be returning anytime soon, especially when the assassins she'd sent to Lucas's hospital room finished their job.

Phoenix knew Rogue would be surprised when she found out Lucas was really behind the plan, just as Phoenix knew that Rogue had long operated on the suspicion that Xavier was behind all this. Phoenix also knew that Rogue would most likely succeed in her mission to stop the plan that Phoenix had allowed to continue once she'd killed the Leader. It wouldn't hurt her own plans to allow the long-formed one of Lucas's to continue. Nor would it hurt her co-conspirators' plans. Phoenix rarely acted alone, and rarely was so foolish as to let things or people interfere. In point of fact, what Rogue would be doing would actually help Phoenix's plans, though she didn't realize that. Every step and act Phoenix set into motion and did, was carefully calibrated for optimum efficiency. There were no emotional outbursts, no spontaneity, no mistakes.

Phoenix smiled and watched as a bright red flare was set into the air on the western cliff shores of Genosha. An answering blue one appeared on the east. Finally, a green flare from the north. The ships were setting sail. Phoenix slowly rose into the air, hovering with the use of her own telekinetic powers. She had dealings to start, and none of them included this little piss-ant country of Genosha.

* * *

_There was darkness to her room that she perpetuated, knowing that it made it harder for them to watch her, and not caring the punishment it gathered for her. These days she didn't care about much. It'd been so long since she'd seen her family or friends, so long since she'd seen anyone._

_  
She stood from where she'd knelt in the corner making herself as small as possible, and cracked her back, unwittingly pulling at the stitches that covered it from nape to the dip where her spine ended, just inches above her rear. She didn't know where it'd come from, or why it was there, but late at night, twinges from it kept her awake. She always did her best to spend as much time awake, and old fear reawakened by this imprisonment._

_Her cell, as that's what it was, was almost homey. A dresser with fresh clothes, a canopy bed, an en suite bathroom. There was a view from her window, though not much of one, given that she'd always loved cities and disdained camping or country outings. Everyday, whilst she slept (thus another reason she so rarely did it), someone would come in and remove the soiled clothes, the ones that she changed so infrequently, not trusting anyone or anything. What made the room even homier was the slot in the door through which they gave her food, as well as the bars that only mildly disrupted the view._

_Pretty and comfortable as that room was, with its settee and bookcase of books, it was still a cell, just a mildly better one than average._

_Rogue would spend three months in that room._

The corridors of Avalon reminded Rogue of the Citadel, with it's own winding and curving halls that went on forever. It was rumored that if one walked from the beginning of the first hall on the bottom floor, you'd eventually end up at the Leader's quarters on the top. However whimsical that is, Mutates were too pragmatic to do such a thing, and took the stairs or elevators for traveling through the Citadel.

It also reminded her of the cloying claustrophobia (or was it panic?) that frequently simmered under any periods of time she spent there. Rogue had hated that ivory tower with every fiber of her being, and once this was all over, she would ensure that it was taken down, even if she had to do it piece by piece.

She strode down some random corridor, searching for what, she didn't know. _Goddamn mutants. Think they know so much._ She ranted to herself on the intricacies of mutant mental power, or rather lack there of, and continued to storm about. So lost in her thoughts and rantings was she, that she didn't notice the figure in front of her until she was a foot from it, or rather, him. Instinctively her body froze at the sense of nearness of an imprinted being, her subconscious spinning in her mind and drawing the imprint of that person to the forefront, analytical training forced onto her activating and spilling information into her conscious mind.

_Gambit; Remy LeBeau; kinetic tactile dispersion, level beta; known affiliations: Dr. Sinister, Morlocks, New Orleans Thief Guild, X-Men, Acolytes; current affiliation: X-Force; identifying marks: red on black eyes, tattoo on upper left shoulder (king of hearts playing card overlapping the ace of spades), birthmark on left arm (pink in the shape of a heart)..._

Rogue knew that there were more details of his life lurking in her mind from the several times she's imprinted him, but she cut off the diatribe after that. Sometimes the psyches in her head were irritating, but more often they reminded her of the aloofness of her existence. She could and most likely was, one of the most powerful mutants on Earth (or in this case, in space), and would always be aware of that. She was Alpha. Tops. A-one! Woot woot.

Gambit stared down at her with no emotion, okay, except for the perpetual smirk. His eyes roamed up and down her body, encased in a green Lycra bodysuit, her traditional mutate garb. "Where you headin' to, chère?"

"Ah feel the urge to exercise. Ya got a gym on this boat?"

"We got somet'in' better."

Gambit held out his arm chivalrously, and Rogue took it with a small smile. They walked several hallways over, and stood before two large double doors. They gave Rogue a vague sense of déjà vu, and so, with a smirk, she asked, "Danger Room?"

"We call it de 'Simulation Room' now, Mr. Xavier no like it to be considered dangerous. He been t'inking dese last few years dat perhaps he was too hard on y'all, dat he might have driven y'all away wit' his manner."

Rogue laughed. "He wasn't hard on us. Nowhere near it. Ya want hard, ya should try the Genosha Militia Camp. That's hard."

Gambit smiled, appreciating the beauty that became even clearer when she smiled. "You know dat, chère, and Remy know dat, but de professor, he don' know dat."

Rogue ran a small, but scarred hand down the doorframe, before turning back to Gambit. "Ya goin' to open the doors, sugah, or am Ah gonna have to pry 'em open?"

Gambit shrugged and entered his code into the door, carefully negotiating his body so that she couldn't see it, never quite trusting anyone. It really was futile though, Rogue knew, because with her mental powers and/or senses she could easily pick the number from his head, or use sensory association to pick the sequence directly off the keypad.

Inside, deeply contrasted against the large cavernous room that had been the Danger Room, was a small room, almost perfect in proportions. On the walls were panels that Rogue's superior eyesight identified as the latest in virtual/microwave-constructed technology. It depended on rays of light to provide image, and at the same time microwaves producing mid-air confined waves to provide some substance. It meant that basically, you could do battle with a fully solid (mostly) image or go through it completely, depending on the frequency and severity of the waves.

Gambit casually strolled over to the controls set next to the wall, keeping his eyes trained on her at all times. He didn't trust her, not really, but then again, he never trusted anyone completely. Even given the recent revelations of her plans, and the consequences, he didn't truly believe she was as heartless as she appeared. That, more than anything, urged him to seek her out, to find the truth nestled within those beautiful, but cold eyes.

Rogue stretched her arms above her head, as around her a deep and steamy jungle appeared. At the same time, scantily clad jungle women appeared, carrying bowls of fruit and cooked meat. There were no smells to accompany the scene, but just the images reminded Rogue of how hungry she was, and had her salivating.

She smirked evilly and threw a disdaining look over her shoulder at Gambit. "Ya own personal program, Remy?"

"Only de best."

The jungle women caught sight of Remy and practically fell out of their tops with glee. Even as they started for him, bosoms heaving and long dark hair falling over one eye (on all five of them), Rogue stepped over to the panel and hit the bright red cancel button. The scene vanished.

"Ah was thinking something a bit more combative. Ah'm not used to this high life of yours. Ah like things grittier."

Gambit stepped close, those scant four inches he had on her seeming more like miles as he stared down at her, his eyes sultry. "Rogue likes it dirty, does she?"

"Rogue likes it violent, she does," Rogue replied glibly, not letting those experienced, but practiced, bedroom eyes fall by the wayside.

Gambit reached over her shoulder for the panel, and instinctively she jerked to the side, out of his way and his touch. Last night, she'd let him a lot more close than that, but he knew that this wasn't personal. She was on edge right now, not comfortable with herself or her surroundings. He reasoned that the blow to his ego over her not wanting him to touch her was just foolish, and ignored it.

With a few taps of his fingers, he had a city scene forming around them, and about thirty ninjas (cliché, he knew, but what better to fight in a dingy alley on the wrong side of Chinatown than ninjas?) surrounding them. Rogue eased her feet apart, her hands lightly balled at her sides, but her eyes rapidly moving about the scene, counting and planning. Gambit lazily drew a deck of cards from his pocket, but Rogue placed a hand on his wrist, shaking her head. "No powers."

"Why not?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Dis program is intended for mutants to use deir abilities, chere."

"Even better. Ah'll really kick ass then."

Gambit shrugged, and put the cards back, taking off his trench-coat as he did so. Rogue allowed herself a brief look at his toned chest, clear but hidden by a tight wife-beater, and focused on the game ahead of her.

The scene was frozen, obviously waiting for the real participants to move and start the simulation. Rogue stepped forward and without warning lashed out with a high kick, sending one of many ninjas into a wall, where it landed with a sickening thud.

"You don' really care for warming up, chere."

"What's the fun in that?" Rogue repeated, even as she launched into a handstand, using her feet to pummel two ninjas coming at her with nun-chucks in the head, and to twist their necks in a smooth little move involving her feet moving in opposite directions whilst holding their heads.

"Does dis mean Remy don' have to do foreplay?"

Rogue choked, and ignored the question, preferring to focus on some down and dirty boxing with three of the simulations. Two hard rights, and an uppercut that rivaled Roy Jones Jr. later, Rogue was setting back on her heels to watch as Remy used vaguely Asian martial art flavored kicks to take down five ninjas. Even as he panted and lunged, he made the effort to make quips.

"Remy like foreplay, chere."

"He bet you like him giving it."

"How about after this-"

"Shut up, Remy."

Rogue turned to the remaining ten ninjas, watching as they circled her, glaring menacingly from their cowls. She smiled menacingly in return, and slipped into combat stance.

They rush her at once, and though the first two took her down, a quick pinch of a neck pulse point had them both down. She flipped back onto her feet, and quickly bent over backwards, out of the way of a high kick. She used her momentum to carry over onto a back flip, hitting her opponent under his chin, and sending him flying onto the growing pile of incapacitated bodies near the wall. She grinned with satisfaction as a loud thunk meant he hit his head.

Gambit had taken down five of the other ninjas, meaning that there were two left. She and Gambit back up until their backs hit each other's and they rotated around, staring at the two ninjas who also circled them. As one, they lunged, Gambit using momentum to hit the ninja mid-chest and take him down that way. Rogue just hit the ninja in the head, and if it's been alive, probably decapitated him. Had she mentioned yet that she loved violence?

She stood, panting, adrenaline running through her system, and enjoyed the endorphins rushing about inside. Her mind was racing, and her heart thumping, all of which made her feel foolish and invincible. For a few seconds, she forgot why she was here, what she was doing, and how important it was.

Rogue turned to Gambit, who was standing as well, and grinned. "So are we fucking or what?"


	13. In the Evening By the Moonlight

Eh...this update took a bit, yes, it did...Sorry, I was in an odd mood...it's like, I knew what I wanted to write, but I couldn't get my brain to actually make the effort to let me write it...so...I finally banged my head against a hard blunt surface and it allowed me to...

A/N: Document manager hates me...sooo...the formatting here, which I usually seperate the "scenes" with lines, will have no such lines today. I hope we can still get the gist and enjoy the damn thing...I hate this site...

**Chapter Twelve: In the Evening By the Moonlight**

_They floated near the bottom of the clear blue Genoshan Bay. They'd only been dead several days, but already the fishes and few sharks that populated the waters had taken pieces. It'd be several more days until the bodies were bloated and softened enough for the bigger fish to get the large bites they preferred. In the moonlight that somehow filtered down into the deep shadows, the man and woman almost danced in the current._

_I'd sent them to that fate, that late-night-all-you-can-eat-fish buffet. I'd known that as soon as they knew what I intended to do, they'd balk and try to stop me. They were both powerful and talented enough that they could have. They both knew my own weaknesses, and knew how to use them against me. It was another aspect of mutate life. There is always a mutate out there who is ready and willing to take you down if the Leader asks them to. I'd spent two years finding out who was my anti-thesis, and seducing them to my cause, only to plan the entire time to take them out when given the chance._

_Shadowcat assisted me, and indeed, she is a good assistant. When the female was fatigued from helping me to contact Xavier, she turned from me, resting her hand on the canopy of the boat, and for once wasn't on guard. Funny how searing mental agony can allow such a thing. Within seconds, I'd removed a dagger from my sleeve and buried it in her neck, she died within seconds._

_The male, sensing the same agony of his mate, came to his feet, but even as the female died, he too staggered. Shadowcat reached out and slid her phased hands into his chest, removing his heart. He too was dead within seconds. Together we pushed them overboard._

_It's funny how their faces in that deep blue grave come to me in this dream. Almost as if I'm there. Sage's eyes are still open, small black hooks on her cheeks coming off and reaching for me. Bishop still clutches his heart, or rather where it should be, but when he moves his hands, millions of fish come from the crevice and surge at me..._

Rogue wakes with a small squeak, stifling it quickly with her hands. Adrenaline pumped throughout her body, making her jump when Remy slid his arm around her waist. He was still asleep, his movement subconscious at best, but Rogue slithered from the bed, uncomfortable with the claim she imagined at the touch.

She drifted around his quarters, picking up his shirt as she did so. After slipping it on, she took a seat by the one window in his room, and stared into the impressive visage that greeted her through it. The Earth, so whole and clean from so far away. Here she was, risking her life to save it. Why?

There were other worlds, other galaxies, other universes where she could go should the Earth be destroyed or become uninhabitable. Some would ask why such a woman as she would willingly go to bat for humanity, when most of humanity didn't even like mutants.

Maybe that in itself was the answer. She willingly fought for Earth, because she herself was part of humanity. Earth is home. Rogue had long ago stopped fighting the affection she had for this great blue planet. She'd swum in all the oceans; she'd been on every continent. She'd claimed much of the planet as her's, at least in some little way. How could she turn her back on something that would, if not stopped, run over the Earth, cover it in blood, and change everything?

Eventually, no matter where she stayed on the planet, the mutates would come. The mutate population wasn't small, or feeble, as some might believe of it. In three years, almost a million mutates had been created. A million. Not all of them were even in Genosha. Through subterfuge, read spying, she'd learned that there were several other islands around the world where Citadels identical to the one in Genosha had been built, and all for similar reasons. Mutating.

Remy stirred on the bed, his eyes opening, and she knew he instantly saw her from the way those red eyes lit on her. She cocked her head, watching as he stretched and slid to the side of the bed to sit.

"Morning, chère."

"Ah don't think three am counts as morning."

"Close enough. Wha' you doin' up?"

"Ah'm not tired."

Remy grinned lasciviously, ogling her legs where they stretched in front of her. "Remy can help you wit' dat."

"Go back to bed, swamp rat. Ah don't feel like faking anything."

"You insultin' my bed skills, chère?"

"Ah can only hope to puncture that overinflated ego, boy."

Remy pouted and feigned pain in his chest. "I hurt."

Rogue laughed. "Ya're not. Ah, however, am hungry."

Remy grinned again, just as carnal as before. "Once again, darlin', Remy can help you wit' dat."

"By going and getting me somethin' to eat from the kitchen?" Rogue asked hopefully.

Remy sighed. "Dat I can." He stood, unaware, or most likely, comfortable in his nudity. Rogue appreciated the image he maintained as he did so, of the battle-hardened ex-thief turned good guy, but still just a bad ole boy. She also appreciated that battle-hardened, scarred, but still perfect body he used to project that image. She'd spent almost an hour finding and enjoying every one of the scars on his body. It was only turnabout, since he'd spent an hour enjoying all the little freckles he could find on her body.

He pulled on a pair of jeans, and kissed Rogue on the forehead before leaving for the kitchen. She could read from his surface thoughts that he intended to bring back some fresh fruit and cheeses, which sounded fine to her. The wine he also intended to bring wouldn't be drunk by her, but she didn't let him know that she'd listened to his thoughts.

Remy had always been a hard mind to read, Xavier had said so himself many years ago after one of their first fights with the Acolytes. Couldn't get deeper than surface thoughts, he said. He was right in one aspect, in that your run-of-the-mill telepath couldn't get deeper than that. Rogue wasn't one of those.

During the fervent love-making, she'd imprinted his deeper thoughts, in two-second intervals so he wouldn't notice. It was one of the reasons why he was more tired than she. She had, however, gotten the information she wanted from his mind, and rising from the chair, and all the nostalgia that lingered there, she dressed, finally intending to carry out one of the more finite agenda of her intentions.

However, even as she turned to leave, she found her hand lingering on the warm and jumbled bed sheets. She hadn't even been with a man other than her mate. It had been interesting to say the least. For it to have been with Remy made some small girl-ish still young part of her heart sing. Then, like usual, the woman part of that heart beat down the girl, and made Rogue turn from her whimsiness, and go into the hall, heading for the elevator, and to the top of Avalon, to the computer/monitoring center.

She gasped into the darkened room, her scrambling for air drawing him into consciousness and becoming aware of the uncomfortableness of sleeping in a chair. Not that he hadn't already known that from the many nights he'd fallen asleep over a new painting or drawing.

Shadowcat lay in his bunk, twisting in the sheets in some nightmare. Piotr rose to go to her, grasping her arms as he gently shook her, trying to wake her. His hands slipped in their grip, so covered in sweat she was. Shadowcat grit her teeth as she shook and tossed her head about, trying to dispel images apparently lodged their and causing her distress.

Piotr once again tried to wake her, shaking her harder, even picking her up into a sitting position, but it was to no avail. Finally, he left her to the nightmare, and pressed a button on the small console near his bed. Immediately, a sleepy Beast appeared.

"Yes?"

"Dr. McCoy, Katya needs help," Piotr said to the monitor as he struggled to control the now flailing limbs of the small woman. For a figure so petite, he learned, she packed quite a wallop.

Beast slipped on his glasses and struggled to see as much as he could through the small came through the viewport in his own room. He didn't like what he saw. "Can you get her down to the medical bay?"

Piotr nodded. "I'll try."

They severed the link, and Piotr tried to take Shadowcat into his arms, but she was moving too much, now completely trying to keep him from touching her. She was crying, her eyes closed, but screams of terror emitting from her mouth. Piotr wanted to be gentle, but found that it was impossible.

He transformed into his mutant metal skin, and with a small prayer, lifted her from the bed. The touch of the cool metal on her skin calmed her greatly. It worried Piotr, because the last time someone had calmed down so at the touch of his mutanity, it had been his father, who in the peaks of a winter fever, had died. It had thrust Piotr into the man of the house position, and created untold of toil on his young soul.

He walked through the halls, as fast as he could without jostling Shadowcat terribly. Within minutes, he'd reached the medical bay, and was greeted by Beast, who directed him to lie the mutate on a nearby bed.

McCoy immediately began to check her vitals and was immediately upset by what he saw. Upon seeing the worry on Piotr's face, McCoy smiled and tried to reassure him. "It's a fever, bringing on delusions. With medication, she should be fine and awake." McCoy didn't mention the rapid fluctuations in her blood pressure, nor the almost seizure like brain patterns the diagnostic machines were telling him about. "Why don't you go and find Rogue? I'm sure she'd like to know about this."

Piotr nodded, but was reluctant to leave Shadowcat. When McCoy swished the curtain around her bed shut, he had to accept that he was unneeded at the moment, and with a small nod to himself, set out on a mission to find Rogue...

...who was currently on Level One of Avalon, the communications and monitoring station. Built with the best technology available at the moment, it had been pathetically easy to get into once the command code had been gleaned from Gambit.

It had also been quite satisfactory to knock Jubilee unconscious once she'd gained access. Jubilee had been the monitor on duty, so Rogue had used a small electrical overload minimized and centered over Jubilee to knock her unconscious. She was glad it had worked, given the explosive nature of Jubilee's abilities.

After dragging the girl from the seat, Rogue had pulled herself over to the large console that took up the entire room and set about doing what she'd came up there to do. It took several minutes, but she was finally able to get through.

On the screen, a large three foot by five screen, static appeared, before clearing and giving a face to a voice Rogue had spoken to for many months. Long dark hair matched with lightly tanned aristocratic features, which included deep azure eyes and a luscious mouth. Yes, she'd contemplated doing him, but damn, who wouldn't? He was not only a powerful mutant, but was powerful in the world too. He was also one of the few civilians "in" on her plan, since his resources had been needed to assist.

Rogue smiled broadly and leaned back in her seat before greeting the man. "Hello, Shaw."


	14. Backlash Blues

This chapter made me cry. I can only hope that it touches you as it touched me.

And, also, two of you, Gambit-Rogue, especially, caught a little mistake of mine with Sage and Bishop, that I missed during the revisions I made before I started updating again...however...on second thinking...I've decided that I can use it...I think...and if I can't...I'll go back and change it. Thanks to both of you, you know who you are.

**Chapter 13: Backlash Blues**

Sebastian Shaw, Black King of the Japan Branch of the Hellfire Club, and if this all means nothing to you, don't feel bad. The Hellfire Club is one of the most secret, yet also, most notorious secret societies in the world. With at least three branches on every continent, the people of this "club" rule the economy, the government, and the public. These are the people behind the people who are behind the oh-so-secret ruling of the world. For now, most of them, at least in the Shaw's branch, are mutants.

One of those mutants was the very man who'd brought the X-Men to Genosha. A man who went by the name Fitzroy. A transporter, he could open interdimensional portals using the life force he'd drain from life beings on either end of the portal. After he'd brought the X-Men to Genosha, he'd reported back to his boss, Shaw, who in turn, ordered Fitzroy to watch the mutates very closely.

How Shaw fit into the scheme of things was something that Rogue had taken a long time to figure out. Then it dawned on her, one bright and shiny morning, after going over the records she'd copied from the Citadel, looking for a weak spot in the infrastructure. Money. Shaw was the money, the financing, the backing. Lucas, while fully capable of putting such a plan into motion on sheer determination, didn't have the money to make it succeed, or for that matter, the brains. Shaw took care of most of that. At least, he had at first.

Once enough mutates had been made, and the Citadel had become self-sufficient, Shaw hadn't been needed anymore. Lucas cut Shaw off, all communications, and killed his little spy. Little did Lucas know that by then, Shaw had a new spy, Rogue. In exchange for her and Shadowcat's eventual freeing, Shaw would get his information, and eventually, she would aid him in taking down the mutate army that, instead of working for him, would decimate the world's economy and open the way for him to sweep in and take over, all on the downlow, of course.

Rogue wasn't happy with the deal she'd struck, never had been. Shaw had his own reasons for doing what he was doing, for the very plan he'd first set into motion, and she was no fool to think she knew them. She watched him, as he watched her, both waiting for the eventual betrayal. Until then, they were allies, begrudged ones.

"Rogue. You've news?"

She nodded, before speaking. "Phoenix has sent the army into Australia. They've cut off all communications out of the west coast. My estimates give two days before they've taken the whole continent."

"So short a time period?" He asked smoothly, accepting a cup of tea from someone off camera.

She nodded again. "They've got good speed, and there really is a lot of open territory they don't have to both with. They'll take the major cities, declare it theirs, and move on, the enforcers will ensure the takeover is complete once the army has moved on."

Shaw nodded, sipping his Earl Grey calmly. "Our other project?"

She shook her head. "Nothing doing."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean that I doubt I'll be able to get what you want."

"Why?" Anger tainted that smooth smirky tone.

"It's not here."

"What do you mean it's not there?"

"I mean, it's not here. I can't detect it's presence anywhere on the vessel."

Shaw sighed, his disappointment evident. "I guess we'll just have to look again. I'll have Tessa work on that. When will the second stage of Plan A go into effect?"

"In a few hours. I've time to prepare."

He studied her through the screen. "If you survive it, I'll see you in Sydney."

"If I survive it, there will be no need to see me at all."

Shaw grinned. "You'd think."

He severed the link, leaving Rogue with a fuzzy screen and a mild head ache. She shook her head to rid herself of the ache, and slowly set about putting the room right. She restored all channels of communication, and set Jubilee back in the chair. A few mental quirks and she had the girl forgetting that she'd been attacked. When asked why she wasn't monitoring the devices later, she'd reply that she'd fallen asleep.

That was all Rogue needed, really. A few hours. Just a small time. She didn't know if her heart would last that long.

Meanwhile, Shadowcat didn't know if her body would last at all. She was in so much pain, and so little of it was her body. Mostly it was her heart, and her soul. Nightmares drifted in and out of her mind, taking their sweet time as they did so. Even as seizures rocked her body, and blood pored from her nose from the mental torture, she imagined to herself that she'd get better. That she'd learn to answer to her human name again. That she'd finally live again.

Piotr returned to her side, never having been able to find Rogue. He'd found Gambit, oddly befuddled, also looking for Rogue, but together, they hadn't found her, and though it gave him a vaguely anxious stomach, he left Gambit to looking and returned to Shadowcat.

McCoy was in the corner, working feverously, trying to figure out what was wrong, and if he could stop it. Piotr took a chair at her side, and slowly slid his hand into her's. She turned to look at him, catching a glimpse of him through the terror that coiled like a snake in her eyes. She was afraid, and there was nothing he could do.

He sat there with her, though. They waited together for an end that wouldn't come. Finally, Beast came to her bedside, a look of utter desolation on his face. "I don't know what's happening."

Piotr nodded, his gaze never leaving her face, nor her's his.

Beast continued. "I can't stop what's happening."

They didn't hear that, but they didn't need to. The seizures had stopped, as had the bleeding, yet she'd become so cold, so still. He held her hand.

Beast walked back to his chair, not wanting to intrude any further, and quietly alerted Xavier and Magneto to the going-ons in Medical. Within minutes, most of X-Force had gathered just inside the doors, watching silently as Shadowcat grew weaker. Rogue still had not been found.

Piotr stood and sat by her side on the bed, still watching, still holding. He used his free hand to caress the side of her face, and he shed a tear watching her color grow all the more paler.

"Shadowcat..." he whispered.

She slowly lifted her own hand, taking his wrist. "No. Don't call me that."

"Katya."

She smiled, just a little. "It's not so bad."

He nodded, not hiding his tears, though he didn't know why he cried. He barely knows this woman. Barely, but just enough. "The pain? It goes away?" He asked in his deep voice.

She nodded, slowly. "It's not so bad anymore. You know, I can almost remember the time before. My parents, my friends, being a mutant." Her voice, it grew weaker, but he couldn't bear to tell her to rest. Her vitals were slowly, but surely dropping as her body began to shut down. Her hand was limp in his hand, she couldn't control it anymore. The telepathic link, once severed, was now causing her mind to die, and her body was going first. She used all her strength to speak. "I remember you."

He smiled through his tears. "I never forgot you."

She smiled at that, a big, a real smile. It reminded him of that girl he'd been with so long ago. Deep dark tombs in Egypt and her smile had lit them up for him. She continued to speak. "I think in another life, you'd have been mine."

He smiled. "In this life, I am yours."

She smiled, and for the first time, a tear slid down her cheek. "How ironic that I'm finally free, and I won't live to see it."

"Don't say such things, Katya. Your spirit, it was always free." He brought her hand to his chest. "I've always felt you with me. Always."

She smiled, and another tear joined the first. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her eyes dimmed, and what little tension remained in her body left. In one of the happiest moments of her life, she left this world for the next. It was as she'd always wanted to go, not in a blaze of glory, but surrounded by family and friends, and in happiness. It was also as Rogue had intended all along.


	15. Alone Again

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, so I'll repeat myself, if necessary...

I now have a forum, dedicated to my fanfiction, and me in general. If you've any questions, or would just like to discuss, then feel free to visit it (it's accessible via my profile i.e. the handy dandy "My Forums" button on it). I welcome anyone who wishes to visit and comment. Feel free to start a new topic. All that's there right now is the "Welcome" post I put up!

And, I'm not sure if anyone remembers this, but when I started this, I had a bit of a challenge. Every chapter title is a song sung by one singer, the same singer everytime. A few of you guessed who it was (I was mightily pleased), and I just thought I'd see if anyone else have an idea of who it is?

Now...back to the story...and a chapter...that will be very action-driven, me thinks...but also a might short. Only four pages.

**Chapter 14: Alone Again (Naturally)**

Whilst everyone who was meant to be up and about was safely ensconced in the Medical Lab, having a beautiful moment of silence for the girl they once knew and the woman they knew would, Rogue was going about her business. In an increasingly disturbingly stealthy way.

After leaving the communications/surveillance terminal, Rogue had retrieved the few things she'd brought with her to the satellite. Those few things included a small dagger, a lock-pick, and a mini-notebook seemingly scribbled with non-sense. It wasn't nonsense, but was rather an elaborate code meant to obscure the meaning of the lists of instructions and methods within. First lesson of that book was how to work a Javelin. Specifically, X-Force Javelin, information that had been drawn from the mind of its creater, Forge, rather painfully, not that Rogue cared.

After safely packing those things away in a small backpack, Rogue changed into her working clothes, a matte black catsuit, meant for durability and flexibility. Nothing like those pesky and tacky leather outfits she'd worn as an X-Man.

Rogue didn't allow herself to linger in the quarters she'd so briefly shared with Shadowcat. Best not to think of how she'd sent her childhood friend to her death, knowingly, but not allowed to tell Shadowcat of her fate. It all started with a lie. The lie being that severing the mental link between Mutate Mates being non-fatal. It was fatal, incredibly so. Also painfully so. Rogue was going through with her and Shaw's plan, though. It was best to wipe those abominations out before they could wipe out others. Some kernel of good inside her knew that to do a good thing by being bad didn't make sense, but she herself had never quite trusted conventional logic. She trusted her own logic, the kind that had kept her alive these three years.

Rogue cast out the net of her mental telepathy, feeling the conglomeration of souls three decks above her, surrounding one fast fading one. Two decks above, Xavier slept, his soul gently wafting about in some unseen breeze...or was it dancing? Rogue had never been good at describing the activity of someone's soul, not being affluent in telepathy in the first place. Two decks below, the hangar stood unguarded.

Rogue slipped into the hallway, silently making her way to the elevator. She palmed the control, calling the elevator, but froze as she did so. There were cameras everywhere, and she didn't doubt that they'd go off as soon as she stepped into the elevator. She was surprised they hadn't sounded yet, given how far she'd traveled through the satellite that night. She could use her abilities, her own or borrowed, to disable the cameras, but even that took too much effort at the moment. Constraining her own abilities for so long was taking it's toll, making her easily tired.

She stepped away from the now open doors of the elevator and considered it. Did a few minutes really matter? She was leaving anyways, and there wasn't any way that X-Force could catch her. However...a fight might be good. Help them ease into a battle stance, a bit? Show them that trust is nothing, and all that rot.

Rogue shook her head. She still had things to do and would need those minutes. With a sigh, she started down the corridor, wishing that this could all get over with. Alas, she still had Shaw's little plan B to deal with. Yes, surprised? She'd lied to him. She knew exactly where what he was looking for was. Another little thing that she'd gleaned from Gambit. Man was just a little fountain of information, thanks to his immoral curiosity and fascination with shiny objects.

Rogue removed the cover of a ventilation shaft, and slipped her lithe body inside, moving about easily in the sparse space. Kinda helped that she could literally stretch her molecules to elongate her body, thanks to another old Mutate friend. She used her momentum to slide down one level, stopping at a vent that looked into Cerebra (hey, Xavier needed air too).

Kicking it out, she crept onto the wall, a la Nightcrawler. The problem with a spherical room is that the center is equidistant from the walls at any given point, meaning that eventually she'd have to get closer to the platform, which was touch activated and alarm-covered. Rogue smiled as her quick and able mind grasped a solution.

She levitated from the wall, hovering above the station and it's helmet. All the technology and shiny screens were nice, but truth was, the helmet is what is important. One of a kind, taken from Cerebro and brought here. The technology that powered the machine Xavier used to boost his abilities was available in several locations, Cerebro, the cockpit of the Javelin, and a small office in the White House. All of those locations were useless with that little helmet plugged in. Rogue carefully placed one finger on the head of the console.

Slowly, small black lines, almost veins, began to spread from it. It crept into the machine and started to age it, quickly. The machine creaked ominously, and satisfied that her work was done, Rogue removed her finger. That power was all her own. A small evolution had ensured that Rogue, without control, would never be able to touch anything without damaging/imprinting it. At the same time that she drew all energy and "Life" from the machine, she drew it's information into her. It was a good thing she had a special enlarged memory capacitor. She'd need some of that information later.

The helmet stood shiny and perfect amidst the now blackened and burned out apparatus. Rogue lifted it from it's cradle and watched, fascinated, as the technology beneath it gave out under it's own weight and crushed itself into dust. The alarms loaded on it were far too old to be of any use, and didn't sound an alarm.

Rogue held the helmet under her arm, and levitated back into the ventilation system, heading down one last level to the hangar. Inside, not one, but two Javelins stood gleaming. Rogue stepped into the room, a wave of fatigue causing her to weaken for just a moment. The lack of control lashed out, drawing awareness of all things to her mind for one second. She had to hurry; X-Force was now actively looking for her.

Raising her hand, she gestured to one of the Javelins, using telekinesis to remove and shred key wires in the electrical system. It would take X-Force a day or so to fix it. Finally, she turned to the remaining plane. The door/stairs lowered invitingly.

After entering and securing it, via all new codes and over-rides, Rogue sat herself in the captain's chair, so to speak. She watched through the windows as X-Force stepped into the Hangar Control Room, Wolverine immediately stepping to the microphone.

"Get out of the plane, now."

Rogue smiled, but only continued her flight-prep.

Gambit's turn at bat. "Rogue, what are you doing?"

A moment of confusion, a wave of some emotion she wasn't prepared for halted her movements. Just as quickly as it came, it passed, and she waved a nonchalant wave to him as the plane slowly turned and he was gone from sight.

Finally, Storm. "If you take that plane into the atmosphere, I shall use the winds to destroy you."

_Like to see ya try, bitch._

Rogue spared one last though to her old friends, and knew instinctively that they wouldn't understand her motives. None of them. They hadn't gone through what she had, they didn't know what she knew, and she had no wish to tell them any of it. Storytime was over. It's time to be a grown-up and deal with what comes.

Rogue opened the Hangar doors and left the satellite.

Meanwhile, X-Force watched as she did so. Storm placed her hands to her head, concentrating on the solar winds, but Xavier, now awake and back in his chair, grasped her arm. "Do not, Ororo. That will not solve this."

Gambit grit his teeth together and fought the confusion that clouded his mind. "Why is she doing dis? Is it because of Shadowcat? Her dying? Does she t'ink it's our fault?"

Xavier immediately shook his head. "No, I'm certain of that. This is something else. From what little I can gleam postcognitive, she knew that was coming. Indeed, she planned on this. She was waiting for it, for something. Jubilee?" He called out suddenly, waiting until she'd stepped forward before speaking. "Are you aware that your memory has been tampered with?"

Jubilee just stared, obviously ignorant. Xavier continued.

"She did that. She did many things. Erik?" Magneto stepped forward too, his face grim. "I think it very important that we not be stranded here. Find out what she did to the Javelin and try to repair it as quick as possible. Beast, you assist." Despite the fact that Xavier wasn't anyone's boss anymore, they listened and left for the Hanger below. Xavier turned to Storm, Gambit, and Wolverine. "She took something. I don't know what, but something important. Start looking. I need to know what she took and why." The trio left for opposite directions.

Finally, only Cannonball and Jubilee remained. Xavier sighed and looked to them. "I think I shall leave you two to begin preparations for Miss Pryde. We'll have a ceremony before we leave."

Jubilee popped her gum obnoxiously. "For old times' sake?"

Xavier glared. "While Rogue's motives remain suspect, Shadowcat was unknowing. She is an innocent in this. One who paid for it with her life. She deserves your respect."

Jubilee nodded, ashamed of how her tongue so often got away from her. Cannonball wrapped his arm around her waist and nodded to Xavier. "We'll take care of it."

Xavier sat in the hangar alone. He'd only just wakened from the induce coma of Lucas leaving his mind, and found that his control was not what it used to be. Outside, Rogue sped away, her mind in chaos of the same level, if not more than, his. Brief flashes were left in her wake.

Xavier looked at each flash, seeking a clue, but only found a jumble. There was a flash of a face, a man with dark hair, sipping a drink and laughing in her face. Another one of a long row of large man-sized canisters, and a freakishly pale man dressed in red laughing as he held a small baby in his arms. A small blue-furred baby with a tail. Another flash of an Asian man, surrounded by fire, indeed, covered by it, but not in an alarming way. More in a god-like way. Last was a flash, an old memory, of a place he knew. Instinctively, Xavier knew that this is where Rogue would be heading. She was going home, and not with good intentions.

Rogue was returning to Bayville.


	16. Don't Smoke in Bed

Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. Y'all are appreciated.

A/N: Audioslave has a new CD, and it is most awesome.

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**Chapter Fifteen: Don't Smoke in Bed

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**

Rogue slowly brought the plane in for a landing, surveying the new Bayville as she did so. It wasn't such a small town anymore, especially given the notoriety the X-Men's disappearance had brought it. On the west side of town, a large mutant-themed amusement park was in the building stages, and many tours were set up about town. Rogue caught a glimpse of several varying in levels of vagueness (from Telepathic Tours, with stops on all of Jean's and Professor Xavier's favorite haunts, to Brotherhood of Tourism, which encompassed the "bad" side of mutancy, which was camped up in the old Brotherhood house).

She ignored all those signs of hypocrisy, given that the residents of Bayville couldn't stand the mutants when they were there, but were more than prepared to profit from their disappearance. Rogue adjusted the controls just a touch, and turned the plane to face the X-Mansion, as it was now called. Looking at it in the waning afternoon light, Rogue felt empty. There would be no joyous coming home for her. This was for business.

The plane settled down without a sound, a benefit of having up-to-date technology, and Rogue wasted no time in leaving it behind. There was roughly a mile between her and the manor, which was currently full of tourists clamoring for a bit of distant contact with the oh-so-dangerous mutants. Even now, a TV blared in a break room about the odd "blackout" of communication in Australia, though it was more in an abstract noting way that it was mentioned. Rogue pushed the thought of all the innocents perishing Down Under, and focused on this small sidetrip. If all went well, she'd be done within minutes and back on the plane, heading to said continent to exact the rest of her plan.

Once in sight of the grounds, Rogue crouched down, moving forward slowly so that the few guards that walked around (think rent-a-cop), wouldn't see her. Inside, her senses told her, three hundred or so people were moving about in various groups, with guides and without. No one would notice the sudden appearance of one more person.

Visualizing where she wanted to go, Rogue tapped into her adopted brother's powers, pulling them to the surface and using them to transport herself to a small closet near the front door. Though she couldn't see it, doing so briefly caused her skin to flash blue, though that quickly disappeared so that she was normal looking when she left the closet (or as normal as a skunk-haired woman could be).

Rogue started to walk through the mansion, smiling a bit as people walked by, and only when she was outside of Xavier's old office did she actually encounter resistance.

"Ma'am? I'm sorry, but that room is off limits, and the museum is actually closing early today. You'll have to leave the premises." The guard was small but shapely, his mind an open book of southern politeness and manners. Rogue didn't hesitate in the brief spike of telepathy used to knock him unconscious. She let him fall where he would. The only real thing that interested her about him was the thought that passed easily from his mind to her's. X-Force had called ahead and asked the staff to evacuate the premises, meaning that they'd guessed where she was going, if not why.

Rogue swiftly entered the room, heading right for the safe. She needed to leave here before X-Force, or anyone else, arrived. It was best this work was done in private, lest Sebastian Shaw's plans unfurl before they were supposed to. It would be most rude to be the cause of such a thing, Rogue thought to herself as she slowly punched her way through the metal door of the safe.

X-Force arrived just as Rogue was leaving. Unfortunately for them and Rogue, they weren't the only ones.

Storm took to the air, her arms thrown out as a storm roiled above. Wolverine popped his claws, Gambit charged cards, Jubilee sparked, Cannonball...stood there threateningly, and Magneto floated serenely. Xavier...rolled as intimidating as he could.

Rogue smirked at them, a new backpack, freshly stolen from the gift shop, wrapped around her shoulders. She stood with her hands on her hips and studied the oh-so-threatening picture and fought the urge not to snicker. Then, a small warble on the edge of her senses made that smile freeze.

With a gust of fire, and a little concentration, Phoenix blew Storm out of the sky and careening into Magneto, both of them crumpling to the ground, but conscious. Above them all, the Phoenix soared, her body encompassed by fire, moving within a pyre shaped like a bird. Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground, smiling coldly despite the fire about her. In a uniform off red and gold, with hair curled and moving within a wind of its own, she was the only one truly intimidating there, but then again, Rogue was used to the bitch's power plays.

Rogue stared at Phoenix through slit eyes, and under the radar began to pull powers to her, curling them like a tight ball within her, waiting only to be released. If necessary, she would make her last stand here, and to hell with the innocents.

Phoenix did not attack however. She stared back at Rogue, sending a small branch of telepathy to the other Mutate, waiting for Rogue to accept the entreaty. What they must speak of wasn't needed to be heard by others.

Rogue reluctantly accepted. _What?_

_Have you gotten it?_

_Gotten what?_

_I take that as meaning that you have. Hand it over._

_No, Jeannie._

_I am Dark Phoenix. I will not be denied._

_Ya're in denial. Ya ain't shit, Jeannie. Ya're a mutant with personality problems, but other than that, ya're no more powerful than Ah am. And ya most certainly are not a goddess._

_I am what I say I am. Do not make me repeat myself. I care nothing for these people, and I will destroy them all if you do not._

_Big loss._

Rogue made damn sure her face was as impassive as possible as she transmitted that last sentence, and she watched as fury rolled over Phoenix's eyes. Behind Rogue, the mansion suddenly shot up in flames, so suddenly that it knocked X-Force off their feet, but not Rogue. No, she'd been prepared for what was to come.

It wasn't Phoenix, that'd done it, however. Rogue turned to the flames and watched as a tall Asian man walked out of them, his black hair long and loose, his golden eyes dispassionate as they stared at his mate.

"Hello, Sunfire."

"Mate, you have done me a dishonor."

Rogue smiled and waved over her shoulder at Gambit. "Mate meet lover, lover, this is my mate."

Gambit rose up on his elbow and spared the effort to give a small wave.

"Do you truly think you'll be able to stop the plan? You are a traitor to our people."

"We are no people. We are monsters, aberrations, caricatures of life. We must be destroyed," Rogue whispered as she stepped close, even now drawn to his skin. The bond between them was one way, from him to her, but she had loved and been loved by this man for two years. Some yearnings were purely physical.

Rogue placed her ungloved hand on his chest, and without regret, sent a powerful wave of Iceman's abilities into him. She froze his heart within seconds, and soon the hoarfrost spread around his body, showing the great temperature drop within. Even though it ached within her mind, her body taking great pains to continue the process, she killed her husband with little thought and effort. Killing isn't an act that requires great concentration. It merely requires a will and a way.

As Sunfire froze into an ice statue, likely for a very long time, if not forever, Rogue removed her hand and turned back to Phoenix, who watched placidly. "Do you want applause, Rogue, for killing your mate? Such a thing is punishable by death."

"In ya society, not mine. It wasn't murder," Rogue explained. "Ya can't murder something that ain't alive."

Phoenix cocked her head to the side. "He had feelings, emotions, thoughts. Even if they were repressed, they were there. He lived."

"Do we have souls, Jeannie? Can abominations like we have them? Can such a thing be created?"

Phoenix wasn't amused anymore, for this was a question she often asked herself, but found even that she, a goddess, had no answer for it. She didn't appreciate Rogue bringing her own failings to her attention.

Phoenix lashed out with her telekinesis, lifting Rogue off her feet, sending her sailing into the flames. Even as she did so, a second tangle of telekinesis removed Rogue's backpack, and brought it to her. Though Rogue infuriated her, there was no need to waste energy in destroying what could someday again be of use to Phoenix.

Behind her, X-Force rallied together, combining their powers in strategic ways to attack Phoenix, who they all felt was a formidable opponent. In sync, Jubilee and Wolverine ran around each other and up to Phoenix, intending to electrocute her via Wolverine's claws which would be jammed into her back. Enough to paralyze for a few seconds, though they didn't get the chance. Psychically sensing them, Phoenix moved before they got close and sent them flying into the air and into the forest. She turned and gestured for the rest of them to "bring it", and oh yeah, they brought it.

Colossus and Magneto paired together, with Magneto using his abilities to send Colossus soaring through the air fast as a bullet right at Phoenix, who merely raised her hand and froze Colossus where he flew. With a small twist of her fingers, the metal skin he'd formed around himself disintegrated, never to return. Colossus, in tremendous pain from the loss, fell to the ground unconscious.

Next was Gambit, though as usual he had no partner. He charged up a deck of his cards, and sent them sailing into Phoenix as one. However, the second they left his hand, they hit a telekinetic barrier and blew mere inches from him, sending him flying back, momentarily stunned by his own gifts and temporarily blind.

There were only three of X-Force left, Phoenix could see, and one of them was only a beta mutant, making him barely noticeable, though it was adorable to see him try and attack her. Cannonball, who was invincible when he flew, didn't even get the chance. As he prepared to charge at her, Phoenix blew out his right knee cap, making it impossible for him to move, let alone fly. Storm was more difficult.

The element of surprise had taken the Amazon down the first time, but not again. Storm called the jet stream to her, suddenly stirring up 150 mph winds that made even Phoenix falter. She pushed forward though, to the eye of the storm, where Storm and Xavier were waiting. The wind pushed harder, almost pulling her skin from her flesh, but still she pushed forward, invading the eye with an audible pop, slamming her hand onto Storm's forehead and pushing her consciousness into a stream of nightmares. Storm fell to the ground screaming.

Xavier watched from his chair as she did so. "What are you?"

Phoenix smiled. "I'm everything. I'm nothing. I am what I am, something you could never contemplate."

She used the winds already stirred up to fuel her newest punishment for Xavier. Funneling beneath him, she caused the dirt to shift until a large sinkhole formed, collapsing under his weight, with only her telekinesis keeping him above ground. "Tell me, Xavier, can you sense anything from me?"

He looked at her calmly confused. "Like what?"

She hesitated. "Like a soul. Do I have a soul?"

Xavier studied her face. "No. You don't."

He fell into the abyss.

Phoenix wasted no time taking to the air, returning to her master with the backpack she'd procured. Leaving behind waste and carnage that Bayville hadn't seen in many years. She also left behind survivors.

Rogue stirred herself from the smoldering coals about her, the destruction of her teenage home. She stepped from those flames, her clothes mere ribbons around her and studied the so-called "Best Team on Earth". Most of them were unconscious or too far away to aid her. She didn't really need it anyways.

Rogue pulled the large red jewel from her jacket pocket, or what was left of it. While contemplating it's luminescence, she used her borrowed mental abilities to catch Xavier who was still falling down the sinkhole, a rather large one, and pulled him upward back to the surface.

He gasped as his chair touched ground, red in the face from screaming, but other than that, somewhat readied to her cause. He breathed in rather deeply, and out again. "Thank you."

Rogue ignored his thanks, and continued to fiddle with the jewel. "You know what this is?"

"That's-"

"Yes, it is. This, Professor, is the key to everything." She turned those deep gray eyes to his. "Nothing is as it seems. Nothing. This explains everything, if you know what to ask and who to ask it of."

She turned and started to walk away, not caring that the others were stirring, or that a group of twenty touring downstairs were burning alive, or that Gambit was blinded, Colossus's mutancy castrated, or that those still awake watched her as she did so. She left them behind. They were useless to her now. She would walk this path alone.


	17. Why?

New Chapter...equals...YAYNESS!

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**Chapter Sixteen: Why? (The King of Love is Dead)**

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Australia was a disaster area, one equal to that of Hiroshima or New Orleans post-Katrina. It was utterly violated by nature, or in this case, by Mutate. They'd swept through from the west coast to the east and destroyed everything in their path not of use to them. There'd been no warning and no survivors to let the rest of the world know what was happening. Even now, only a select few were even aware that something had gone down, and even less realized the scale of it.

Buildings had been shattered where they stood, decades old and stable foundations doing nothing to stop the many geo-abilities that Mutates had been armed with. Any baseline humans had been killed as soon as sighted or sensed. Some had their heads imploded from certain vocal tones wielded by various mutants, some simply dropped where they stood under the assault of mental attacks, and then some others went down the old-fashioned way in a bloodbath of Japanese film epic proportions. There were a select few mutants taken back to Genosha, where they would undergo the Mutate process, which again, only a few would survive. In the end, the survivors of this massacre would number in the hundreds, and millions would die.

There was a large empty space between the coasts in Australia, where heat and deserts made it barely travelable, let alone livable. Rogue surveyed it, and watched as hundreds upon hundreds of Mutates walked through it, none of them showing the wear and tear of such an undertaking. She piloted the ship a few miles ahead of them, and took it down.

Rogue landed the plane in an open field, though it had very little grass and no trees. She stepped from the plane, and gingerly onto the ground, and knew immediately that the thousands of Mutates heading her way felt her do it. There were at least a dozen Mutates within the mob with connections to the Earth, and the others shared their senses and thoughts, what little there were. Connected mentally through Phoenix; they moved in synchronicity, their minds as if one, their actions without thought, puppets in the hands of a madwoman.

Rogue opened her "third" eye, and all her senses and the connections between the Mutates and their master shone in her mind brighter than the moon on a clear night. Silvery webs of connection, spirally closer and closer, and tighter as well, all the way to Phoenix, connected to them all through a clear, thick silver chain, strong as it's namesake.

Using Cerebra, and her own permanently taken mental abilities, Rogue would not only seek to destroy those connections. She would unravel them and kill every single once-person that was attached. She would delight in it. If she actually felt such emotions as delight and joy. No, like her Mutate compatriots, she felt only the vaguest and faded emotions. It would aid her in this mission.

The troops were cresting a hill, miles away, but clearly seen to her. They didn't smile or yell in glee of battle. They moved silently, smoothly, but without thought, again. They weren't even people anymore. Individualism had been wiped out as soon as the countdown to the "plan" began. They were robots moving at the will of their creator. Rogue should have felt something, bitterness or perhaps sadness? All she felt was determination.

She pulled Cerebra's control headset to her hands, and slipped it over her skull, settling it on comfortably. Then, she took to the air for her final battle, and at last, she felt something; fear.

Rogue smiled softly as an old saying unwittingly came to mind as the Mutates came closer. _The road to Hell is paved with good intentions._ Rogue just wondered where the road paved with bad ones led, and if she would like it there.

* * *

X-Force was in shambles, but they re-grouped nonetheless. A quick looking over by Beast proved the situation dire, but not heart-stoppingly so. Colossus for the moment had no powers. The metallic coat that covered him had been destroyed by Phoenix, and Beast had no idea whether another one would form or "grow" in its place eventually. It would take further research, and there was no time for experimenting at the time. For now, Colossus was out of the fight.

Gambit was in equal bad attentions, but wasn't so final. The blindness appeared to be only temporary, with shadows and light already returning to him. He was incredibly weakened by the act of blindness, but years of thieving and training meant that he wasn't to be discounted from the fight. He'd long ago made it near impossible for him to be defeated by the loss of any one of his senses. He could be heard boasting that even in a dark room he could balance perfectly on a steel beam less that three inches wide...and that he could disrobe a woman in the same situation within seconds. Jubilee, with her broken ankle and sprained wrist from her own incident with Phoenix, found the energy to laugh at that. She and Gambit were resting near the rear of the plane, letting the others, still able, plot their next move. Next to her, Cannonball was sedated. Beast didn't think Sam would ever walk the same again. He had no knee-cap on his right leg, and given the choice, Beast would have rushed him straight to the hospital. However, there had been no time.

Wolverine, already fully healed, was het up and fit to fight. Magneto, having decided most wisely after Colossus' incident with Phoenix to "hide", was also fit to fight. Storm still shook from the force of the unending nightmares forced into her mind, and jumped at every sound, but it was clear that she was also ready to fight. Xavier studied them and was satisfied that some of his most powerful allies were alright. Beast, who'd arrived in yet another plane only minutes after Rogue had escaped, didn't quite realize the enormity of the effort they were contemplating.

"To be honest, Charles, the girl wiped us out. We rushed in and stood no chance," Storm stressed, wringing her hands as much from worry as from nerves torn apart. Her hair was matted about her shoulders, from sweat and effort, and she made no attempt to fix it.

Xavier nodded, and folded his hands in front of his face. "Do we really have a choice? Seeing what Phoenix was capable of, can we truly blame Rogue for wanting to stop her? And others that would appear to be just like her?"

Wolverine ached for a cigar, but ignored it. "Rogue has good ideas, but she ain't going about it the right way. Her way is gonna kill a whole helluva lot of people."

"She feels it is the only way," Beast replied.

Xavier interrupted before the violent mutant and his oft-pacifist friend engaged in another debate. "For all we know, it might be. It does seem that these Mutates have adopted a "do-or-die" idea to life. She's had three years to form this plan, and we've had two days to think on it." Xavier slipped his hands to his sides and stared at his old friends. "She never was a fool, and I fear that she probably is right."

Wolverine glared at him. "After all these years of telling me that violence isn't the answer, you...what? Change your mind?"

"I don't like admitting this, but this is a situation that we are completely lost in. We have no idea of what is truly going on in Australia, or what they're doing. We can only...trust. Have faith that Rogue knows what she is doing."

"She does seem quite capable," Beast added, turning to correct some navigational things as they entered Australian airspace, only to gasp at what the aft cameras were showing him as the zoomed into the coastal area. "However, I doubt she did this, so I fear that leaves only one option."

The others, including Gambit and Jubilee, hobbled their way to the front of the plane, taking in the desolation that now lay there.

Jubilee voiced what they all thought. "How could someone do this?"

Fires waged at various placed, in varying sizes. As the ship soared by at a lower altitude, the better to see the destruction, the fires waved in the wind, and rose a bit before ducking back down. Other than that, nothing moved. None of the bodies, none of the buildings. Not even the trees. Everything was dead.

Xavier concentrated for a moment, and verified that thought. "I'm sensing no life signs. No humans, no animals. Nothing."

Gambit steadied himself on the back of the pilot seat and struggled with the emotions clogging the cockpit. "What's happened?"

Storm was the one who spoke, and as usual, did so with an elegant melodramatic tone that often fit the situations they got caught in so well. "Angels and devils walk the earth, and they care not for what their battles cause us mere humans."

Gambit deciphered the poetics and quickly deduced what she meant. "Rogue was right."

Xavier ducked his head and turned his chair back to the small table with its map of Australia and the information that they'd all learned the past couple of days. "I fear she is."

The others returned to their seats, and their own thoughts. The next thirty minutes were traveled in silence, but the atmosphere of the plane was mournful. X-Force had never learned the virtue of distance, and they felt every loss as if it were personal. It was both a virtue and a curse. Too much distance, and you could do damage with your apathy. Too little...and you hurt every time you went into the field. You lost something of yourself each time you lost an innocent.

Many of X-Force finally faced the fact that the time was coming when they'd either have to quit or removed themselves from these situations, because they'd already lost so much of themselves that very little remained. Some hid that loss behind drinks, smoke, or sex. Others hid it behind archaic wisdom, silence, and fake smiles. Others again didn't hide it at all.

Beast looked up from the directional controls and caught sight of what lay ahead and he immediately called the team to the front. They came silently.

The sight before them was an awesome one. Hundreds of dark figures, Mutates, were spread out but moving steadily east. A couple dozen feet above them, telepaths hovered, some on their own volition, others in the arms of flying Mutates. Higher still, was one figure, one that burned in a fire of her own making, Phoenix.

Even farther ahead, a lone figure drifted above the ground, tied down with a couple lines connected to a small plane, her arms thrown out and a bright red light forming about her head like a demonic halo. As they watched the glow grew brighter, until it shone like a second sun in the evening light. It was Rogue and she was "firing up" her own mental engine.

X-Force watched as Rogue stirred the pots of the atmosphere, calling lighting and thunder to her, the ground shaking beneath her, lava boiling to the surface beneath her before being covered by rain and water from a freshly formed spout nearby cooled it into rock again. Fog rolled in, and the heat in the area rose swiftly.

Beast plotted a landing area just behind her, and as the plane curved around her and the shifting circumstances that she was controlling, a small wave of red pulsed from her. It only traveled a few feet, but the second one only seconds later traveled farther. As the situation and scene was described to him, it was Gambit who made the connection.

"She's using the abilities and the lives she's absorbed to fuel Cerebra, make it stronger."

Xavier nodded. "She's using her own life force, as well."

"It will kill her," Jubilee exclaimed as they finally touched down.

Xavier turned to the door, his eyes sad. "I fear it will."

They opened the door and watched as Rogue floated even higher, the atmosphere even more volatile, and new events occurring. Shadows came to life beneath her, as holes within the timeline and reality itself began to form. Creatures spilled out of them, before being overtaken by other abilities that manifested from her. The plants came to life, rising and destroying many of the creatures, before the rains came again, this time made from acid and burning away anything that ventured too close.

X-Force wisely chose to stay a bit away, and watch as the situation unfolded.

Finally, the army of Mutates arrived, and Rogue opened her eyes, only seeable now because of the odd gray light that suddenly formed in her crimson halo. Two small dots of gray that watched as the Mutates froze as one and Phoenix drifted down to a stop in front of them.

"You cannot stop me, Rogue."

Rogue laughed and let her arms fall to her sides. "Ah'm willing to try."

Phoenix nodded, this time, a bit sadly. "So it will be."

"So it will be," Rogue echoed.

Then, the world erupted in fire and chaos, and all X-Force could do was watch.


	18. Tomorrow

Another chapter update? So quickly? Yes. Yes it is.

A/N: This is the second to last chapter. YES. I said it. Next chapter is the last chapter, and then there's an epilogue. I hope we all enjoyed this.

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**Chapter 17: Tomorrow (We Will Meet Once More)

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**

The world, quite literally, erupted in fire, causing all the X-Men (save Gambit who had to be pulled to safety) to scramble out of its way. Xavier didn't really have to move at all, since his chair was below the average height level (though if he had hair, he wouldn't have it anymore).

The few braver ones looked back up to watch as Rogue and Phoenix dueled high above them, the air streaming with various projectiles from both. Phoenix balled telepathic and pyrokinetically controlled fire in her hands before sending them slamming towards Rogue, who with the aid of Cerebra, easily parried them, and returned with a few surprises of her own. Great storm clouds began to form above them, jutting lightning into the ground, missing Phoenix by inches, but taking out dozens of Mutates at a time. X-Force noticed that none of them even strayed near them, a deliberate play on Rogue's part.

The Mutates, scattering and briefly confused as the hold Phoenix kept over them wavered, sought for something to aid their commander in battle. They finally saw such an option in X-Force. Hundreds of Mutates, all the ones in the immediate area, picked up that thought and turned in sync to study the mutants. It was an extremely disconcerting sight. Good thing Gambit couldn't actually see it.

"Piotr?" He called out, rising to his knees in the quickly increasing mud. His Russian friend came to his side, helping the man to his feet. "Wha's happenin'?"

"Rogue is battling the Phoenix," Piotr explained in his deep accent, his voice quiet despite all the noise around.

"Is she winnin'?"

"I do not believe anyone is winning."

"What about de army?"

"They are looking at us."

"How many?"

"Hundreds."

"..."

"Mayhaps thousands."

"Dey're lookin' at us?" Gambit whispered to Piotr, his hands slipping into his pockets to fiddle with the cards that tangled there.

"Da."

"In what kinda way?"

"Menacing."

Gambit nodded. "Remy need you to be his eyes, Petey. You up to it?"

"Da," Piotr agreed, knowing that there really was little he could do in this situation without his abilities.

"Where dey at?"

"Which ones?"

"Any ones!"

"Twelve o'clock."

"Your's or mine?"

"Your's."

Gambit charged the cards he suddenly held in his hand, sending them flying in the direction Piotr supplied and was rewarded with several large explosions muffled only slightly by living flesh. Gambit smiled rakishly and was already threading more cards between his fingers. "I t'ink we goin' to have some fun, Petey."

Elsewhere, Wolverine was having his own sort of fun, the kind that ends with his claws being covered in the thick musculature of bodies he'd rammed them through so many times that the substance didn't even try to drip off. His metal claws weren't to that point yet, but it would only be a matter of time. While above him, Phoenix and Rogue were trading metaphysical blows and transient wounds of all sorts, he ran through the crowd of Mutates, his claws out, his teeth gnashed, and a low primal moan of pleasure in his throat. Logan was in his element, the only one he'd ever been truly comfortable with. He didn't know his past, and doubted he had a future, but what he did know was that he was a man bred for battle, and lived for the exhilaration that he found there.

Storm rose into the air, fog swirling at her feet and faced the thousands of Mutates before her. It went against a deep inner grain to take life. It was against nature to do so. Her eyes flashed white and her hair, the same color, swirled about her head. The storm clouds above started to churn and roil, before giving birth to massive tornadoes, of the highest caliber. Micro-managed to the Nth degree, Storm made damn sure they hit only Mutates. She might not like what she had to do, but she did it. For the good of the many, she would kill a few...hundred.

The others likewise made use of themselves. Jubilee shot her pretty sparkles, blinding Mutates long enough for Beast to take them out, whilst Magneto slowly, but epidemically, caused the iron in the Mutates' blood to heat and sear arteries closed, killing in a most effective manner. They would find out later that Magneto and Storm had the highest kill amounts on that day (and Logan would be most upset and envious).

Xavier, however, watched. Truthfully, he doubted he could help X-Force with their battles, and the fight going on above was most fascinating. He alone of X-Force could actually see what was happening on the astral plane, and it was one of the most impassive battles he'd ever seen. While their bodies were spitting and hissing in physical space, in truth, the minds of Phoenix and Rogue were not even there. Their minds were locked in a much more intimate battle.

With his telepathy at full range, he could only get a bare sense of the power the two women were wielding against one another. Their astral forms were completely still, and the noise of the physical realm did not even try to breach the air around them. Their eyes were locked on one another's, green clashing with gray, both steely cold and determined. This was not a battle of powers or abilities or even strength. This was a battle of will.

Mind against mind, spirit against spirit. This battle, a long time coming, had little to do with the recurring themes of betrayal and redemption, nor did it have to do with the jewel that Shaw had sent them both after. It had to do with two girls, growing up together, rivals for the same boy's affection, for the same friends, for the same place in life. They were enemies. Pure and simple. Everything else was just dressing.

Telepathy battered at telepathy, small whispers of purple twinkles in the air showing just how much force was between the two women. Rogue's hands clenched and unclenched as her forehead began to bead out sweat, her face contorted with effort. Rogue, with all the many powers and lives she'd absorbed, and with the aid of Cerebra, was still not a telepath. Her mind was not meant for this strain. Even so, she pushed on.

Phoenix, annoyingly observant bitch that she was, took the time to gloat (even if the strain was getting to her as well). "You can stop fighting now, Rogue. We all know that my mind is so much more powerful than yours."

Rogue grinned maniacally, a sudden idea occurring to her. "It's not quality, Jeannie...it's quantity."

Rogue opened her arms wide, and to the astonishment of both Xavier and Phoenix, shadows forms began to flow from her fingers, slowly shaping into humans. Telepaths that Rogue had absorbed and now kept within herself. Together, they turned the whole of their abilities against Phoenix. She withstood the assault from all sides for a few minutes, but even a telepath of her magnitude, already over-strained holding the Mutates in line, fell to the rush of power slamming at her shield. With a small shocked gasp, Phoenix's astral form fell from the plane. Rogue took satisfaction in knowing that for a few minutes Phoenix was out of action. It was all she would need.

Rogue pulled the psyches back to herself, folding them into her mind with ease, though a few did protest. Psylocke, in particular, didn't like the "cell" where Rogue kept the psyches to keep them from attempting control on her mind. Even in the astral plane, a headache brewed behind her eyes and she raised her hand to rub at it. Somewhere in the back of her mind she noted that in the physical realm, Phoenix fell a few feet, but otherwise remained in position. Her eyes viewed Rogue blankly, lost in her own thoughts, or rather, lack there of.

Rogue started to return to her body, to start in action the plan that would end this, when she sensed another presence nearby. Though, truthfully, this part of the astral plane was under the Shadow King's control, he himself stayed far enough away to not be affected by anything that happens there in. Even he feared Phoenix. Rogue thought at first that he'd sent a surveyor, to take note and carry back information to him, but opening her senses fully she realized that he still hadn't learned his lesson.

"Xavier. Always watching. Always teaching. Why did you come? I thought we made it clear in Bayville that this does not need involve you."

Xavier sent his own astral projection a few feet closer to Rogue's. "I want to know the truth. Of what happened to you, and the rest of my students. You've given us half-truths and all-out-lies, almost destroying us without a care. Before this is over, I want to know why."

Rogue eyed him, taking in the tall imposing figure his astral form took. She floated closer, gently taking his hand. "Okay."

Rogue suddenly, and without warning, send millions of thoughts, three years worth of moments into his mind. It lasted only a second, but to Xavier it seemed longer. Every second, every action, every memory of three long years suddenly available to him, and it overloaded his mind. His astral form disappeared, and down on the Earth, his physical body stopped the sudden seizure and slipped into unconsciousness. Rogue smiled as she noted it. He would have his truth, but it was really up to him what he did with it. She had done all she could to set things right, and it was time to truly end this conflict.

Rogue rooted herself in the physical realm and took a few seconds to note what was happening below her. Wolverine was lost amidst many bodies, quickly growing, while in the distance tornadoes and hail took down hundreds of troops in wait. Magneto had people dropping like dominoes, all in a line, and at the front line, so to speak, Gambit, Piotr, Jubilee, and Beast did their best to keep the hordes from encroaching further (and killing X-Force).

Rogue balled her fist and knew that this was a situation that she'd led them all to. At the time she'd thought it the only way to be sure. To be real. To make a footnote of herself on the annals of history, but now she feared that only the enemies would live to tell. Enemies that even now cowered in hiding, waiting until the bloodprice was paid before coming out to scavenge the remainder of what was left.

Rogue could taste a combination of bile and blood in the back of her throat, and she closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to face the hundreds of people before her. As she did so, a flurry of facts slid behind her eyes, a side affect of calling all those many lives and abilities within her to the surface. Not one at a time, not in combination. No. She called them all. She fueled her own demise.

Rogue clasped her hands over Cerebra's headset and concentrated.

_There were 1234 people within a two-mile radius of Rogue._

She called those powers, and funneled them into her mind, her eyes flying open to reveal of rainbow of glowing, colors kaleidoscoping into mixtures of colors never seen before. Her face paled with the effort, even as a small trickle of blood, leaking from her brain slid down the side of her face, from her hairline.

_Of that number, 234 are corpses, or rapidly dying, and 992 are Mutates. 8 are mutant._

Below her, sensing the great power surging above, the fighting stops. The Mutates stare at Rogue, unaware of anything but the beauty of that light. It was salvation. It was deliverance. It was release from a life of non-living, going from one day to the next without even realizing how long it had been since they'd stopped simply existing and **felt** life.

Rogue felt her power stutter, as the physical exhaustion of the past two days caught up with her. Her body would not hold up to this torture, manic pain that shadowed every delightful discovery of what she held within her. She concentrated harder.

_Sky is blue, grass is green. Blood is red._

Slowly, imperceptibly even to the telepaths, small waves of telepathy started to resonate from Rogue. It grew stronger, and the telepaths noticed. Phoenix woke from her trance and screamed with rage. She struck out with her own telepathy, but it was too late. The invisible waves of power batted those feeble attempts to stop Rogue easily.

_His eyes are the most beautiful things Ah've ever seen. When Ah looked into them, Ah felt emotions, for the first time that Ah can ever remember._

Rogue let her arms fall to her sides; her strength funneled so much into Cerebra and her own mind that no longer even tried to cradle her poor aching head. The light in her eyes was no longer incandescently colorful, but rather burned with the bright non-color of the sun, blinding everyone with miles so that they couldn't even gaze upon her any longer.

Those small waves felt like they were tidal waves, crashing against all mental barriers and shredding any connections between people like it was tissue. On the ground, Mutates began to scream in agony. Almost immediately, those closest to Rogue and the team began to slump to the ground dead. As they watched, more and more bodies fell. X-Force felt the power in their minds, but had nothing to be obliterated. Beast ran about, trying to help the people he was only minutes before attacking, knowing it was futile, but trying with his own heart to help anyways.

Gambit couldn't see her, but he liked to imagine he could feel her warmth on his skin, her touch on his face. He kept his unseeing eyes open, if only for the painful reminder of what he'd give to save her.

_Ah think, in the end, Ah'll miss him, knowing that he has always been her's. Never mine. Never again._

Phoenix, feeling the agony of her people, her teeth bared in hatred, threw aside any logical plans, including escape, and did what she felt she must. She drew the dagger hidden at her waist and flew at Rogue.

Even as the blade slammed into her chest, into her heart, Rogue sent out one last powerful wave of telepathy, one that echoed for miles and miles, giving even baseline humans a headache. Rogue stayed in the air for a few moments, the tableau not as shocking as it could have been. She'd assumed the backlash of the task she'd set into motion would kill her. She'd go down gracefully and angelically, her good task of the millennium done. Maybe even she'd fall into Remy's arms, and die there.

Instead, blood spurting over her hands, Rogue pulled the dagger out, stared at it for a second, her grey eyes confused. Then, she fell to the Earth, slamming into it with a thud most that echoed through the now empty battlefield. X-Force watched. They witnessed.

Beast wept tears of bitterness, his poet's soul in hell at the sight of such a loss of life. Wolverine echoed the sentiment of being in hell, but then again, he'd always felt that way. Storm was unseeing, her mind so lost in the primality of nature that even if her mind had thoughts, it would be as old and unreadable as nature itself. Jubilee held Gambit's hand on one side, and Piotr's on the other. The trio watched as Rogue fell, and Phoenix fled, and together they joined Xavier in standing at Rogue's side.

She was bloody and bruised, her face scratched from the fall. Still, she lived. Rogue opened her mouth, to tell them one final thing, but her windpipe was crushed and no sound emerged. Xavier understood what she wanted without having to read her mind, which after the exertion of before was in shambles and chaotic. He answered her unasked question. "We'll do as you wish. I promise."

Rogue smiled, her teeth red with blood and darker things not meant for the light. Her grey eyes were fogging over already, but still she managed a tear as Gambit sank to his knees beside her and took one of her hands. As she held on to him, she thought to herself one last thing, her last words of a sort.

_Ah didn't intend it to be this way, but it is a hellavu way to go._

She would not be forgotten.


	19. End of the Line

This is it, folks. The last "official" chapter of this story. All that's left after this is the epilogue, which will tie up the more obscure loose ends. Do not cry, my loyal ones. This story will end in a thoroughly delicious DEMONIC way. I'm ebil. Most ebil. You shall see. You SHALL see.

A/N: This is the last official chapter of the story. There will be an epilogue, which will tie up some of the loose ends that still linger. Just so y'all know.

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**Chapter Nineteen: End of the Line

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**

_My dear professor Xavier. Ya've told me that ya want the truth. As the old cliché goes, ya can't handle the truth. However, Ah'll tell ya what Ah know. Ya'll be going over all this posthumously, so forgive me if Ah take my time with it. It's difficult for me._

The massacre Down Under was swept under the carpet by the Australian government, or rather, what remained of it. The official story of the carnage was alternately an explosion of dangerous gases or a rapid outbreak of some unknown disease that just as rapidly disappeared. Journalists after a hot story strung their stories with innuendoes and hints, but no one knew the truth except for the higher-ups of a few governments. No one that high up wanted to admit that such a thing was possible given the extreme and prejudicial laws they'd all passed. Secretly, some were thinking it was those very laws that caused this, but others thought they needed more strict ones.

The pressure was on for X-Force, what remained of them, to leave the matter alone and let the clean up crews handle what remained of "Genosha" and it's political plans. In the wake of Rogue's death and the promises he made, he couldn't do that. However, given the ordinances they were breaking by going into Genosha, he did give the option to X-Force. They did not have to go. Not surprisingly, none opted out.

Together, the mutants descended to the small island of Genosha. With aid of Storm and advanced technology, they landed outside the Citadel in relative safety. The air outside the plane was stale, as if even the land knew that it's time had passed. Xavier led the way in, with Magneto levitating him over the crumbling door frame and into the dark front hall.

They stood their in silence, their minds struggling to keep up with their hearts, whom beat fast as a hummingbird's wings and nowhere near as quiet. It was Xavier who spoke next. "We're to go downstairs."

_The truth started with me, but it won't end with me. That's part of the reason Ah'm telling ya this, so ya can finish what Ah started._

_Approximately three years ago, Ah woke up in a hospital room, and my life hasn't been the same since. The doctors there explained my whereabouts by saying that Ah'd been reborn, as a Mutate, one of god's chosen. Ah have since learned the truth, though admittedly Ah was a bit of a dunderhead for the first couple of months. Ah did what they told me, because Ah couldn't understand what had happened. Ah could remember another life, before Genosha, but Ah couldn't feel that life. Ah had no emotions tied to that, and by extension, no real emotions at all. Ah was the perfect little drone._

_Then, however, Ah started to feel something. An urgent something, calling me. At the peak of that urgency, Ah followed it into a place Ah couldn't remember going before. To the sub-basements, off-limits to all Mutates. The only one ever seen entering those levels were the doctors and the Leader. Given my abilities, it was little effort for me to gain access._

The way down to the sublevels would be impossible for baseline humans, and still was quite difficult for the mutants. Someone had taken great pains to cut off all direct entrances into the basement before leaving. However, they hadn't counted on Magneto.

With a wave of his hand, chunks of concrete littered with metal wire lifted from the floor. A quick glance from Gambit, whose sight had returned fully in the days following the "incident" showed that the way was clear for them to proceed. He jumped down first, with the others following, and Magneto and Xavier floating down. Storm looked unsettled the deeper they went, but she didn't say anything, so neither did anyone else.

They continued deeper into the facility, with Xavier leading the way, and seeming to know where he was going despite never having been there. However, to lessen their worry, he didn't let them know that mentally he had been there. Both Lucas and Rogue had taken this walk, Lucas more than once. In his mind, he walked within them as they did so, felt was they felt, thought what they thought. Lucas was blank, his thoughts idle as he walked toward the impending horror, without so much as a care in the world. Rogue had been confused. Decidedly child-like in her mannerisms and thoughts as she's snuck down the hall. He walked along with them both, torn in two directions. On one side, the son he failed in everyway. On the other, the student he hadn't failed, but had lost anyways.

Soon, they came to a small red door. It had no visible knob or lock. If not for the color, none of them would even have noticed it (which was, of course, a lie. They had various abilities, and eventually one of them would have noticed the damn thing). Once again, Magneto's great magnetic abilities came in handy. Rather, they would have. The door was made of wood.

Wolverine shredded that will ease, but couldn't help the smirk he let sail over his shoulder. The magnificent Magneto couldn't take down one itty bitty door? For shame.

However, once inside those doors, all feelings of congeniality disappeared.

_For the longest time, Ah couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Ah knew it was something, because Ah could remember a time when Ah was different. Xavier, darlin', Ah walked into that room and Ah knew. Ah knew what was wrong with me._

_Ah could feel her, ya see. Ah found her easily. She was third on the left, two rows down. She looked asleep, but Ah could tell she wasn't. She dreamt. Ah thought for a minute that Ah was what she dreamt, but the second Ah touched her hand Ah knew. Ah was the nightmare, not the dream. Ah took from her information, identity, memories. The first ones taken, but these given. She wanted me to help, and instead Ah put her back into the sleep the damn doctors started._

_She was gone from my head, that urgency gone. Ah couldn't forget it though, and knowing what Ah knew, Ah didn't want to. Ah began to plan. As Ah did so, Ah made allies, found information, and plotted. As ya stare into that room, Ah want to tell ya the truth of what happened there. The travesty._

The door opened into a cavernous room with a large column in the center, walls lined with strange glowing portals. A few steps closer and you realized that they were not portals at all. They were cells. Filled with a liquid that was lit from within by unseen lights. Inside those cells, bodies floated. Not bodies as in corpses, bodies as in people. The doors on the cells were covered in rime, though not truly was it frost. It looked more like dust and mold.

Xavier rolled forward, to the edge of the balcony that overlooked the room. They'd entered at the very top of the room, and as he looked over it, he could see hundreds of such cells surround the walls, and forming a large circular pillar in the center of the chamber. X-Force stared in wonder. Every single cell in that chamber had a person in it.

Down the balcony, Jubilee suddenly gasped and took a step back from one of the cells, her step so sudden only the banister kept her from falling. "Xavier! Come see this!"

Of course, they all had to troop down and see what had shaken the oh-so-solid Jubilee. As they peered into the cell, Storm was the first one to speak.

"Is that...Nightcrawler?"

Jubilee nodded. "Yeah, it is, and that green goo totally doesn't look good on him."

Storm resisted the urge to smack the young girl (on the principle that this was a young girl and allowances must be made). "I was under the impression that he was deceased."

Xavier turned his chair to stare at his team. "He is. Rather, the one Rogue knew is deceased."

"The one Rogue knew?" Magneto asked.

"Was not the real one," Xavier finished. "You see, these are the real mutants. The ones we fought and watched died, including Rogue, Shadowcat, and others, are not."

"Then what are dey?" Gambit asked, his red on black eyes wide open and child-like in their innocence. Xavier knew it was an act, and that even now Gambit's mind was working frantically to come up with an answer.

Xavier fought back a triumphant grin, and remained stoic. "They were clones."

_It all starts with Magneto and the X-Men. Four and a half years ago, he kidnapped us, the best of the best, and took us to Asteroid M. We all know how that turned out. Asteroid M was destroyed, we were freed, and all the pretty gems of Cyttorak that he'd been planning on using to subvert us were destroyed._

_The issue of that was settled between us and Magneto after that, and it never came up again, but it wasn't forgotten. The gems of Cyttorak, first used by Cain Marko, ya brother, to become Juggernaut, had long been an interest to the Black King, Sebastian Shaw. Though the last remaining gems on Earth were supposed to have been destroyed with Asteroid M, as soon as it was safe, Shaw had divers in the water searching for any sizable pieces. After a year and a half, all they'd found were small slivers. Enough for Shaw to at least begin his plan._

_Right around that time, Shaw was forced out of leadership of the New York Hellfire Club, and migrated to Japan. He'd lost his "test subjects" in the process. Normally, he'd have waited a while and found new trustworthy subjects. However, his partner, Dr. Sinister, convinced him to take another route. What better way to form the perfect army than of fellow mutants? And not just any mutants...the most formidable team on the planet. X-Men._

X-Force stared at Xavier like he was crazy, or at the very least, possessed by some alien force trying to control them and perpetuate some unseen plan. They decided to go with crazy.

"What are you talking about, Chuck?" Wolverine asked, idly cleaning his teeth with a claw and staring at Nightcrawler, who didn't looked to have aged a single day since the last time he'd seen the fuzzy elf. Whoa. Now there was a term that took him back. Back to days filled with girls giggling and boys blushing, the food in the fridge being gone (as well as several of his bottles of beer), the bathroom always occupied, and the living room constantly cluttered. He'd missed those days.

"These are the real X-Men. Unaged, unchanged from that day they disappeared three years ago. Using telepaths, their memories were transferred to the empty minds of clones created specifically for that purpose. In all ways, physically and mentally, the people we met were Rogue and Shadowcat. In reality, they were merely really good copies."

Magneto studied the rows upon rows of mutants, all in stasis, kept sleeping at the will of machinery and their captors. "What do we do about this?"

Xavier looked surprised. "We wake them, of course."

Magneto looked sharply at X-Force and Xavier. "We do not have the experience necessary for this. These people are going be confused, angry, depressed. They've been kept here against their will while abominations walked around in their skin and lived their lives. We should notify the UN and leave it be."

Surprisingly, it was Jubilee who objected. "We can't do that. These are our people. We can't leave their fates to some drone in some office. What if they decide it's not worth it, and let them keep sleeping?"

They all stood there silently as they contemplated that. True, the United Nations, though Earth's foremost politically correct organization, they were still human and subject to prejudicial practices. There was no telling what they'd do in the face of this.

Xavier rolled forward, his wheels to the very edge of the balcony. "We take the X-Men. Leave the rest. We'll contact the UN as soon as we're away from here and detection."

There in lay the gambit. X-Force wasn't supposed to be here at all, and to have found this and taken from it before it could be processed as a crime scene as UN procedures demanded was risky. For all they knew, the UN might lash out at X-Force. There was little they could do, but even X-Force didn't want bad publicity. It might affect funding.

Still, X-Force started to search out for the rest of the X-Men. They would take their family with them when they left.

_Given the size of the shards, and the uncertainty of the process itself, Shaw was hesitant to risk injuring the mutants. If the process failed, then the mutants would die as the first experiments proved. All that potential would be lost. That is where Sinister really came in. Years ahead of the public knowledge of technology, he had successfully cloned humans. Shaw hired Dr. Essex, or Sinister as he calls himself, to do just that. It was the perfect ploy. If the process worked, then the most powerful mutants, ie the ones who survived past a certain testing period, would be cloned again and again, the later ones without memories and personality implanted mentally. The perfect soldiers._

_The test period was three years. At the end of those three years, the mutants that passed inspection would be mass-produced and put under his employ. Problems arose much earlier than that._

_Dr. Sinister didn't like being someone's employee and taking orders. With the cooperation of the "dummy" leader of Shaw's front (a small Genoshan company specializing in microchips), Sinister began to plot against Shaw. After one year, all communications between the two men was cut off. The Genoshan "factory" was going solo with plans of it's own. At the three year mark, when all the other "factories" around the world would begin their partial shut down and begin evaluations, Sinister's army would begin it's march. By the time the other factories were active again, it would be too late. Sinister would have taken Shaw's headquarters, in Japan. He'd have had the world._

_Shaw wasn't taking it lying down, and that's where my plan begins. Shaw contacted me, put me in contact with his aide, Tessa. Ah smuggled her into the Citadel, where she was "captured" by security. Within a week, Sage, her clone, was out and about. Ah freed Tessa, who reprogrammed the clone with her real objective. Tessa escaped, and Sage and Ah continued to plan. Ah assumed that she and Ah was the only one working for Shaw, but on retrospective, Ah think Ah was wrong._

X-Force were in various places around the room, searching for the X-Men. Only three had been located so far; Nightcrawler, Cyclops, and Wolfsbane. Magneto used his control over magnetism to wrench the cells from the walls, and they floated in the air, still operating, though now under the power of Storm's electric storm. Magneto and Storm both flew along with the cells, watching as the ground-bound members of the team continued to search, at the same time, looking through the central pillar that housed cells the other people couldn't see or even reach. Storm found the next X-Man.

"I've found Amara!" She called in her crisp worldly accent. Magneto instantly held his hand toward the cell she gestured to, and pulled it from it's moldings. It floated passively for a few seconds, before soaring to join the other three.

In rapid succession, Bobby, Roberto, and Ray were found. They joined the other floating cells. No other X-Men could be found by the team. They turned to Xavier.

Steadying himself, Xavier reached out with his mind, feeling the small blips on his "radar" that represented each mutant. They were all freakishly small and nominal, the sleeping state of this prison making it almost impossible to detect them unless you were looking for it.

Xavier let his mind roll over that room, row by row, wall by wall. Minds that he knew, that he'd touched before, flickered under his eye, burning a bit brighter as he passed over. He prodded Magneto's mind as to where the cells were. Tabitha, Warren, Kitty, Jaime, and Rogue had been found. The only remaining missing X-Man not to be found...was Jean.

_From the beginning, things kept going wrong. Phoenix always seemed to be in the right place at the wrong time, almost catching my plotting, but never letting on if she did. It should have clued me in, but Ah was so focused, Ah never paid attention. Ah think now Ah'm paying for that._

_Shaw contacted me a year ago. He told me that the plan to take down Sinister was off indefinitely. He had a new target for me. It'd been told to him that you, Xavier, had the last remaining whole Cyttorak gem on Earth, and he wanted it. With it, he could evolve himself completely, and wouldn't have need of large armies and the like. Yes, Sebastian Shaw, Black King of the Hellfire Club is a mutant, and he surrounds himself with them as well. Just so ya know, for future reference..._

_Ah told him no. Ah told him that he could find that damn jewel himself. Ah was taking down Sinister if it was the last thing Ah did. Turns out now, it prolly isn't going to be, eh? Maybe indirectly Ah'll finish what Ah started, but Ah got a feeling, a premonition if ya may, that Ah won't live to see another day. Promise me, Xavier. Ya'll finish what Ah started._

_Ah can feel the dawn calling me, and it's time for me to go. Ah hope Ah've given you enough information that ya can understand what Ah went through, and why Ah did what Ah did. Ah hope that ya can tell what needs to be said to the world, and the things that don't need to be._

_Ah was real. Ah may have been a clone, but, baby, Ah was real. Ah lived. Ah loved. And damnit, Ah made mistakes, but Ah learned. Doesn't that make me human?_

Xavier thought of what Rogue had told him, and couldn't help thinking to himself that perhaps that Rogue had been more human than all of them combined. To be made so aware of your own life and death, and everything between. To know that without a doubt, you had a purpose in life. A destiny. Xavier envied the late Rogue her purpose, having so often floundered in life, unsure of where to turn next.

Magneto lined up the cells, and started to manipulate them out of the room. The door was much too small for them to fit, so he blasted the frame away, leaving a large hole. This whole idea, a sleep containment center for the mutants reminded him too much of his childhood for comfort. These people hadn't deserved this. Forced anonymity amidst torturing apathy of your captors. It was a scenario he was all too familiar with. The world wondered why he was the way he was, so bloodthirsty, so driven. They need only to look into the darkness of the human soul to see what he'd been born of. Magneto was the world's conscience, and he intended to be for a long time.

They all had a purpose, X-Force, X-Men, mutant, Mutate. Human. Destiny. So often entwined intimately, irreparable when separated. They had to believe that somehow, this was meant to happen, and that some good would come of it. It was the only way they could continue to even try to save this pitiful fucking planet called Earth. It was the only way they could continue at all.

Some of X-Force started to follow Magneto out the door, but Storm and Gambit stayed behind with Xavier.

"She's not here," Storm commented, observing the lack of the last member of the missing X-Men.

"Who?" Gambit asked, watching as Rogue's cell floated away, her short and striped hair moving slowly as she bumped along. She looked so young, not at all like the hardened and bitter version of her that he'd made love to not even two days ago. He could still remember her pants in his ear, her tongue on his lips, her...not good to go there now. That woman was gone, and left in her stead was the girl he'd first come to love so long ago. Gambit scratched behind his ear, waiting for someone to answer his question.

"Phoenix isn't here, Gambit," Storm answered him, her hand on his shoulder, turning him from the sight of the cells floating away.

"Oh...why?"

Xavier turned from the open space of that room, and stared at them sadly. "I fear she never was."

"What do you mean?" Storm asked, following Xavier as he slowly rolled out of the room.

"Phoenix was different from the other Mutates. She had her emotions, her memories. She felt. I'm beginning to think that she was never cloned at all, though I don't know why her, and not others as well."

Storm swallowed her nerves, and brought up the courage to repeat the one thing in all her years she'd never thought she'd hear, though she'd heard it not five years ago from Xavier's own lips. "Jean is possibly the most powerful mutant on Earth."

Xavier halted his progress, his head tilted as he silently agreed with her. "This is why if that was really her, then it's also quite bad."

Gambit watched the couple freeze and stare at each other. They were both thinking the same thoughts, serious thoughts that were eluding him at the moment. "Can we stop wit' da silent treatment and jus' say whats on our minds?"

Xavier turned his chair all the way around, the sound echoing in the long hallway. They were quite empty down here, the rest of the team already above and stowing away the cells for later deactivation. "Rogue believed that Shaw took them and did this to them because he was seeking to make a perfect soldier, and by extension, a perfect army. I am beginning to fear that that was only part of it."

"What else do you think he wanted?" Gambit asked.

"I think that Shaw wanted to perfect himself, and also, create a perfect counterpart for himself. The perfect mate."

Storm continued that thought. "The perfect powerful mate."

They stewed on that for a while, not moving until the other started to call down and ask what the hold up was. They knew nothing for certain, they told themselves as they left that cursed place. This was just a guessing game; they were trying to make sense of the unexplainable.

Xavier doubted they'd ever know the whole truth.

He also doubted that they really wanted to know it.

_You told me once, that mutants are the next step of evolution. If all this war and deception and murder is what we mutants bring, then Ah think that they may be right. Maybe mutants should be stopped. Killed even. Lord knows, we spend enough time killing each other._

_It's human nature to kill ourselves. It's human nature to kill each other. Will we ever evolve past that, Xavier? Can we? Or are we doomed to just repeat the same thing over and over again?_

_Ah'm thinking on it, and ya know what? Ah think Ah just might be glad Ah'm dead._


	20. For All We Know

This is it, baby! The last chapter...ish. It's an epilogue, meant to tie up some loose ends, and maybe create some more questions. We'll see.

A/N: This is dedicated to all my wonderful readers and reviewers. This chapter that is. The entire story is dedicated to my hero, Eileen Blazer, who I know some of y'all have read. She writes ROMY too, so I know you'll like her, though I do recommend hitting her complete stories since she NEVER updates...

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**Epilogue: For All We Know

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The videotape was grainy as it played the scenes in black and white, evoking old-movie classiness. The tableau within was just as emotionally fraught and overplayed as those old movies.

The girl smiled, her white bangs falling into her eyes as she listened to the man, his eyes so plain looking in the monochrome, yet still odd. Shaw didn't have to read lips to know what the two mutants were talking about.

While lip-reading was not one of his talents, Sebastian Shaw, Black King of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club was not merit-less. He was a beta-class mutant, though was not lacking in power. Nay, despite that less than stellar classification, Shaw was one of the most formidable mutants simply because of the nature of his ability. Any force against him, kinetic or physical, was displaced by his body and converted into energy for himself. All violence committed against him was turned against the wielder. Unless you're a telepath of some sort, he's damn impossible to beat; this was one of the reasons he'd climbed so high on the Hellfire (and damnation) Ladder. Other talents he'd utilized on that climbed included greed, cunning, and a legendary bed-manner. Not that his aid Sage would know that. They had a strictly platonic relationship, her decision. Still, lip-reading was not one of those talents, thus, she transcribed the conversation happening on camera.

Her hand on her ear as she listened into the conversation (not that she needed it, talented little telepath that she was), Sage began to speak aloud as the mutants on camera came into focus, their mouths moving but no sound coming out. The spy camera wasn't equipped with a microphone.

Xavier rolled forward on the screen, facing the X-Men who sat or stood in a tight group near the window overlooking Earth. They all looked unsettled and out of sorts, and oddly matching in green sports wear. "We know this is a lot to take in, and want you to take your time in handling it. There's no rush to do anything, you can stay here on Avalon for as long as is needed." Sage paused as Xavier himself paused, perfectly in sync with the telepath, whom she shared more commonalities than she'd ever admitted.

It was Rogue who spoke first. "There was a me? And she could touch? And do all that?" She avoided looking at Gambit as she said that, knowing fully what went on during the few days "she" had been with him.

Xavier nodded slowly, waiting for the real question that lurked behind the stumbling conversation. Sage could hear it how deep and rough Rogue's voice, nay, all the X-Men's voices were after no usage in three years. It would take a while for their bodies to reacclimate to being up and about. Unlike being "frozen", the cells that the mutants had been imprisoned in didn't keep the body in complete stasis. True, the X-Men didn't age or move or any of that, but the bodies still had to be viable for cell removal for various cloning. Rogue herself had been cloned a total of three times. The first one, created during that first month after she'd been taken and put to sleep, had died in the Petri dish, a victim of it's own DNA. The second one had died during the artificial aging process, once again a victim of it's own DNA. It was only the third one, the one they all briefly knew and loved, that had survived the cloning process. Though Rogue had been the trickiest to clone (second only to her adopted brother Nightcrawler, who'd taken six attempts, due to his own unusual DNA), all the X-Men had been cloned several times. Though possible, human cloning was still tempestuous business, or so the case reports told Sage. As Shaw's right hand "man", she'd been required to read and commit all paperwork on the project to memory, since it had to be destroyed as soon as it was even printed.

Rogue hesitated, the guilt of asking such a question weighing briefly on her mind. Still, she asked it. "Does that mean Ah could...touch too?"

Xavier let his head fall forward a bit, his thoughts racing before he finally answered. "It is possible. You must remember that the Rogue we met who could touch had undergone numerous gene treatments and was herself just an augment of yourself. For all we know, they could have completely twisted her DNA to make it work like that. Still," Xavier reached for Rogue's gloved hands, waiting patiently for her to stop her grimace and allow him to do it, "I do believe that with enough training and practice, and yes, trust, anything it possible."

Rogue smiled, but removed her hand. The entire group of X-Men seemed oddly apart from X-Force, even on this 2-D mimicry of the actual meeting. The two groups eyed each other, Rogue and Gambit eyeing only each other, but didn't have the reunion of hearts that X-Force expected. It was truly no one's fault. In the blink of an eye, it seemed to the X-Men, the people they loved had changed and aged. They'd missed the gradual changes, the small things, and suddenly were confronted by these big things. It would take a period of adjustment.

The camera shifted focus to Cyclops as he wobbled forward (that pesky musculature deterioration making his movements jerky as if he could hold his weight up). "What about Jean? Why isn't she here?"

Xavier started to move back from the group, returning to stare out the window, seeking a way to explain Jean's presence, or rather lack thereof, but Shaw had seen enough. With a flick of his fingers, he stopped the tape and turned to Sage.

"I'd say this was a success."

Sage let her hand fall and turned to study her boss. "How so?"

"Well...we got the jewel."

"And lost thousands of lives, millions of dollars, and many opportunities."

Shaw shrugged, leaned back in his seat, and grinned. He was dressed like a nineteenth century gentleman, but was anything but. His grin was feral as he thought of all the havoc he'd wreaked on the world and mutants in particular. "I had fun."

Sage inclined her head slightly and withdrew her compact computer. Though she didn't need to, her computer like mind faster than any computer could ever hope to be, she brought up the rest of his schedule for the day. "I'm glad, sir. Your schedule for the rest of the day?"

Her sarcasm was lost on him. "Yes."

"Outside, the project leaders of the Genoshan Mutate Program are waiting to speak with you. After that, Ms. Pryor requests a few moments of your time."

"Madelyne? Whatever for?"

"She had some questions about tomorrow's Black Ball. It will be her first appearance as the Black Queen and I believe she's having some doubts about what you both shall wear."

Shaw shook his head, sending his long black hair cascading about his face. "Such trivial domesticity. I'll see her in half an hour."

Sage noted the time of it and telepathically sent out a signal to Madelyne, also a telepath, noting the time of the appointment. A vaguely dissident answer was returned. "She says she's more than half an hour away, by car."

Shaw shrugged and grinned. "Tell her to hurry."

Sage inclined her head again and began to leave the room. When she opened the door, Lucas and Phoenix stood on the other side. Sage didn't introduce them, rather let them in and left. She had other matters to attend to, matters best done without Big Brother watching.

Phoenix took a seat in front of Shaw, her shapely legs perfectly showcased in the short pleat skirt, matching the white blouse she wore. She looked like a redheaded Veronica Lake, dressed as a schoolgirl. Beside her, Lucas, still clad in the hospital clothes he'd found himself in, looked out of place and dishabille. It was Lucas and his pacing that drew Shaw's gaze.

"Why are ruining my Persian rug?"

Lucas stopped pacing and fought not to glare. Anger around a Hellfire Club member was never a good idea. They'd been known to lash out. "The plan failed."

"And?"

"And that's bad!"

Phoenix watched calmly as Shaw gestured for the teen to sit across from him. Lucas begrudgingly allowed himself to take that seat. She spoke as he did so. "I did not retrieve the gem as you wished."

Shaw waved his hand in the air as if to say "No matter". "It's been recovered already."

Jean cocked her eyebrow. "How? I was under the impression that X-Force was in possession of it after the number three's demise?"

Shaw stood and took from his jacket pocket a large red jewel. "I know a girl who can walk through walls."

Lucas frowned. "You mean the clone of a girl who could walk through walls."

Shaw shrugged. "Same difference."

Lucas scowled and stood again. "Let's talk about Genosha."

"What about it?" Shaw stood too, moving to the front of the desk to sit there and smile at Jean, who smiled back.

"You tried to have me killed. If I hadn't transferred my mind to another of my held bodies, I'd have died."

Shaw and Jean, conspirators and would-be assassins, shrugged. "All part of the plan, my friend."

"Yeah?" Lucas asked. "Well, I'm still alive. Was that part of your plan?"

Shaw frowned exaggeratedly. "No, it wasn't." With a small gesture from him, Phoenix stood and stepped behind Lucas, who was staring out the window at the desolate cliff shores of a neighboring island. With the silence and deadliness of a skilled killer, she snapped Lucas's neck, ending his life in one brutal move.

As his body fell to the expensively detailed flooring, she couldn't help a small quip. "I always liked more blood."

Shaw, who stood behind her, agreed. Then she shot her in the back of the head. She too slumped to the floor. The window she'd been staring out of moments before remained unbroken. He silently marveled at the clarity of the bulletproof glass, which had the habit of fogging up given time. This one shined like new, if you excused the large splatter of blood on it. His sense of humor decided to roar its ugly little head at that moment, and he noted that the blood stains looked just a bit like an ink blot he'd been subjected to as a child. In truth, it'd looked like a freakish butterfly. What had he told the lady psychiatrist? He'd said it looked like her, only with her head blown off. Had he ever mentioned he'd spent time in institutionalized?

Shaw stepped away from the fresh meat and went to call Sage. She answered promptly. "We're going to need those cleaners earlier than I anticipated."

With that task taken care of, Shaw sat down to watch. Quick as a bug in the light, the cleaners, four short men, all in black with their faces masked (today as the various American Presidents) (Shaw fought the urge to shoot the Abe Lincoln one), they scurried in and removed the bodies. A mop and fresh cold water later, the wooden floor where the "incident" had happened was clean. The window was wiped clean with Windex. As silently as they'd come, the cleaners were gone, leaving Shaw to his solitude. He removed the gem of Cyttorak and studied it's glinting surface.

This was the very stone that had transformed Charles Xavier's stepbrother, Cain Marko, into Juggernaut. The legends warned of it, but Shaw had spent good time and money to figure out just what the damned thing could do. It was simple. It evolved the person using it to their utmost potential. Combined with other elements, it could do anything from mind-control to genetic manipulation to devolution, from man to monkey to amoeba. It'd also taken a good deal of money to find out its origins. It wasn't from Earth, as the many possessors of it had thought. It'd been brought to this planet by a race of people called the Shi'ar, though they were long gone. However, Shaw also knew that Xavier was familiar with those people as well. Xavier was a popular, popular boy.

There was a knock at the door and Shaw started. A half an hour had passed within the blink of an eye. It was another problem with the gem; obsession. Stowing the gem away in his pocket, Shaw reached for the button that allowed the door to open without an alarm. Just inside the frame, silhouetted by the hallway light, Madelyne Pryor stood. She was his wife, and his Black Queen. She was perfect in everyway. He'd had her created to be that way. No memory of what came before, only what he wanted put there. She was a talented telepath, with telekinesis and pyrokinesis thrown in as well.

She was also a clone of Jean Grey, and an mutant by the name of Dark Phoenix.

"Darling, we simply must talk about this. Just black? No other colors? Seriously?"

Shaw smiled and stood to greet his love. "It is called the Black Ball."

"Yes, but why must we dress in black?"

"We are the Black King and Queen."

The next part was unsaid but understood. _They are the Black King and Queen. Until death do they part. Side by side, they rule the Underworld of Earth. They are powerful and virtually unstoppable. They move beneath the radar of society, unseen in their glory. _And they have plans.


End file.
